Naruko: The Fox's Daughter
by XsnakesforeverX
Summary: A story based on Uzumaki Naruko being the daughter of the Kyūbi. Possible pairings, but nothing decided yet. Will update summary as I go (and as needed). My first story on this site, would greatly appreciate reviews!
1. The birth of a Kitsune Kit

**A/N: Okay, this is my first attempt at writing anything on this site, so I cannot attest to the quality of what follows hereafter. I am also using mobile to write this for now, so errors are probably a bit more likely than if I used my PC. I will warn you to not expect any update schedule, as I am a bit of a... spur of the moment type of person. I'm not good at schedules at all. I do plan to make this a long story, though, as that is the kind of story I enjoy reading myself.**

 **Anyway** **, about this story and the inspiration for it: I read a lot of fanfiction, and lately I've been on a binge for Naruko (female Naruto) stories. And for some reason, this particular binge (of many other binges I've done in the past) has inspired me to try my hand at writing my own version of a "Naruko is the daughter of the Kyūbi" fanfiction, since the idea is really intriguing to me. I may borrow some ideas I have read, but I'll try and make it as unique as possible and to not steal any OCs (I don't like _too_ many OCs anyway, especially overpowered ones, and will usually introduce them for a very good reason).**

 **I'm also not too confident at writing battle scenes yet, so certain battles (like the one in this chapter) may be somewhat abridged for now (I may or may not edit one in later, or just cover it in more detail in a flashback or something). This will mostly be battles that I don't have too much of a basis for (I feel like the day of the Kyūbi battle was not covered in much detail in the original series, anyway). For any original battles I come up with or battles that have a lot of basis to work on from the original series I'll write the whole fight properly.**

 **Anyway** **, let's get to it. I don't own Naruto, or even this idea. The only thing I own is my particular _version_ of this idea.**

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 **Chapter 1**

 _October 10th, Night of the Kyūbi, Konoha outskirts:_

' **I told you this was a bad idea,** **Kushina** **. This is too much for your body to handle'** the demon fox growled from within her mindscape.

 _'Oh shut up, I got this, Kurama. I'll make it through this, dattebane!'_ Kushina thought back, irritated. She was breathing roughly and in incredible pain, but she would do this, damn it!

 **'Birthing the child of a demon then unsealing the same demon from your body in such a short span of time is dangerous, even for you'** Kurama growled in response, worried. She was one of the few humans who actually gave any effort to try and understand him. That's why she was trying to release him in the first place; he wasn't the evil monster everyone thought he was. In fact, he was rather protective of the people he cared about. Only a handful of humans really understood him. The Rikudō Sennin, although he was long since dead, was the first. Other than that, it was only Uzumaki Kushina, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Namikaze Minato, and Jiraiya of the Sannin. Sure, a few other ninja would trust their judgement about him, but they didn't really know Kurama for themselves.

 _'You don't deserve to be caged like this, and childbirth is the best way to weaken the seal to safely remove you from me. If you were ripped out of me without a weakened seal, I would certainly die. At least I have a chance of survival this way'_ Kushina responded, exasperated with the worrying kitsune.

 **'A demon's birth is more stressful to the body than a human's birth, though. What about that Yondaime Hokage of yours, Minato?'** Kurama suggested. This brought a bright red blush to Kushina's face at the suggestion, almost matching her hair.

 _'Sh-shut up! I would have done that if I had gotten together with him before we came up with this idea! I'm not making you wait longer to be free AND aborting your kit just to make this a little safer for me! She's my daughter too and I love her!'_ Kushina mentally yelled, angry at the Kyūbi for even implying the idea. Kurama sighed internally. The plan Kushina had decided upon was for Kurama to pour some of his demonic chakra into her womb during ovulation, causing her to become pregnant with his demonic child. At the time, Kushina was single and had _thought_ she had no prospects. Just a couple months later, the Yondaime, Namikaze Minato, of all people, had asked her out! It was true that she had been interested in him for a while, but she had no idea he felt similarly about her!

Finally, the wail of a newborn was heard. The midwife, an ANBU woman selected by the Yondaime himself, handed the crying baby girl to Kushina, who laughed weakly. "Yeah this is definitely my baby girl, Naruko." The girl had fiery red hair and violet eyes. The only noticeable differences in appearance from her mother were the vulpine slits for pupils and the matching fox ears and tail in red fur. Kushina smiled down happily at her beautiful baby girl.

Suddenly, a masked man broke into the room, stabbing the ANBU woman in the neck with a kunai. She instantly dropped to the floor, bleeding from the lethal injury. He knocked the child out of Kushina's hands roughly to the floor where the infant lay disturbingly quiet.

"NO! NARUKO!" screamed Kushina in despair, but before she could go to help her child, the masked man had gathered chakra in his hand and slammed it onto Kurama's seal, roughly ripping the Kyūbi out of the distraught mother.

 **"You bastard! What do you think you're doing?!"** the fox roared, enraged, turning his eyes on the intruder and preparing to attack. He only realized his mistake when he made eye contact with a Mangekyō Sharingan, but by then it was too late.

"What's wrong?!" Minato shouted as he burst into the small room with a team of ANBU. What he saw horrified him. Infant, limp and quiet on the floor. ANBU midwife, on the floor and bleeding from a fatal injury. Uzumaki Kushina, pale with lifeless eyes. Kurama, currently the size of a normal fox, but obviously under the influence of the _Mangekyō_ Sharingan, about to transform to his full size. And a masked man laughing in triumph.

"Y-you! Who are you?!" Yells an ANBU guard angrily.

"I am Uchiha Madara. The Kyūbi is rightfully my pet, and with it I will finally destroy this damn village!" The man declares. Minato and the ANBU's eyes widen with shock at first, but then narrow in anger. "I won't let you!" Minato says and attacks, but he passes through the masked man as if he weren't even there.

"As if you have a choice in the matter. Now, I must be going, but I'll leave the Kyūbi here to kill you all!" the masked man says, and then vanishes in a strange distortion of the area around him.

"Damn it!" yells an ANBU as Kurama finishes growing to his full bijū size. They know that the coming battle will not be a pleasant one.

 _Aftermath of the battle_

When Kurama finally broke out of the damn influence of the accursed Uchiha eye, he looked around himself in horror. Konoha was in shambles, buildings destroyed, dead and dying shinobi, and a fire blazing still in the town. He himself was injured badly, but he didn't care much about that at the moment. It is nothing his accelerated healing factor could not handle. He saw one of the few humans he considered a friend, Namikaze Minato, bleeding from a fatal wound to the heart, barely clinging onto life. The dying Yondaime was leaning on a tree close to a dead Kushina and his barely breathing kit. So his daughter is still alive, but not for long if he doesn't help her, fast!

He shapeshifted to his humanoid form, an ability that the kitsune race is famous for. He was a handsome man, despite his severe injuries. Reddish orange hair, 9 tails with silky fur of the same color, peircing eyes and dressed in a black and red kimono with the Kanji for 9 on the back in gold (九). He rushed to his daughter and saw that she was injured badly, too badly to recover on her own. Just as he reached her, Sarutobi Hiruzen reached them, having come as quickly as he realized something was wrong on the far side of the village.

"I'm sorry, Minato, Hiruzen. I never wanted this" Kurama said to his friends, not able to look either of them in the eye.

"It wasn't your fault, Kurama" the blonde man replied, his breathing ragged. "I didn't get there in time to stop it, I should be the one apologizing to you."

The older man shook his head sadly. He only wished he had been nearby. He truly understood how the other two men felt in wishing he could have done more to stop this tragedy.

Kurama started channeling his chakra into Naruko, knowing it would aid her healing factor and that it was the only way to save her. He was also aware that he was low enough on chakra that if he did this, then he himself wouldn't survive his wounds.

"Kurama! If you do that with the state you are in now-" Hiruzen shouted in worry for his kitsune friend, but Kurama cut him off with a glare and a growl. "I know. Stop worrying about me, Hiruzen, and look after my little kit. Naruko will need someone to look out for her."

Sarutobi Hiruzen saw the resolve in the fox demon's eyes, but also the pleading, desperation of a parent wanting the best for their child. All he could do was stare back at Kurama and nod with a determined expression. "She's going to have a hard life, but I will do all I can for her." Sarutobi said.

Kurama smiled sadly. "I know" the fox said as he felt the last of his chakra flow into his daughter. Just before he lost consciousness for the final time in his long life, he saw his daughter open her eyes and look up at him in wonder.

Sarutobi Hiruzen closed his eyes sadly, allowing a few tears to fall, as two of the men he respected the most, passed just a few minutes apart from each other. He picked up the young kitsune kit and carried her into the village with a _shunshin._

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 **A/N: That's chapter 1 down, for now. Starting straightaway on chapter 2!**


	2. Lost and Found

**A/N: Okay, last chapter wasn't as long word count wise as I wanted it to be, but at the same time, I couldn't think of anything to add and I felt like that was a good stopping point, story wise. I'll look back at it eventually and see if there is anything I can add or improve on, but for now, I feel like it is best to keep my ideas flowing while they are coming to me easily.** **Also, thanks to the people who followed this story. I don't know how you found it so fast, but I'm glad you did. I am seriously writing this right after I published the first chapter. Much love to you for showing an interest in my writing.**

 **I don't own the Naruto franchise, though I wish I did.**

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 **Chapter 2**

 _5 years_ _later, on the anniversary of the Day of the Kyūbi_

Naruko was feeling scared. Very scared, actually. The nice old lady who was in charge at the orphanage she lived in suddenly fell over one day at lunch time and didn't get up. The young fox girl hoped Furi-obaa-san would get better soon, she must have been really sick. The other children who lived at the orphanage and adults who worked there weren't very nice to her at all. They were completely different from Furi-obaa-san. Naruko guessed having a tail and fuzzy ears on top of your head was a bad thing, since most people kept trying to rip them off of her. She didn't like it when people did that because it hurt her a lot.

Little did Naruko know, Furi-obaa-san would not be getting better any time soon. In fact, she would not be getting better at all. She wasn't sick, she was dead. She had, in fact, been poisoned by her co-workers for being nice to "the little demon-spawn bitch" and taking Naruko in to the orphanage at the Sandaime Hokage's request. They didn't care that the Hokage himself wanted the girl to be treated well and looked after with love and affection. In the opinion of the workers there, fox demons, or kitsune, are **_all_** pure evil, and should be... _disposed of_ as quickly as possible. Many of them had lost family, friends, and lovers during the Day of the Kyūbi. Now that the one demon sympathizer at the orphanage was taken care of, they could finally get rid of the monster child without interference.

That night, as Naruko was sleeping, she felt a pair of hands roughly yank her out of bed. Just as she was about to cry out in surprise, she had a cloth stuffed in her mouth to gag her. She struggled frantically to get away, utterly terrified. "MMMPH!" Naruko tried to scream, but she was hit across the face. While she was stunned, her arms were roughly grabbed and held behind her back while her captor tied them together. Her legs received a similar treatment, being tied together to limit her movement. After that, she was forced into an old sack and it was tied shut firmly, barely giving her room to move.

"Shut up, you damn demon bitch. It is all you and your species' fault my family is dead. And now, because that senile hag Furi, sided with you instead of humans, we had to kill her to get rid of you. You damn disgusting creature!" An angry voice told Naruko. Naruko recognized the voice as female, one of the women who worked at the orphanage, but she was too distraught by the words to remember whose voice it was. Furi-obaa-san was killed? That nice old lady, who had never done anything to hurt anyone and always tried to make everyone happy, was killed because of her? Naruko never wanted that. Inside the sack, where her captor couldn't see her, she was crying. Not that her abductor would even care, she was too concerned about her own pain to even consider that someone like Naruko had emotions, too.

Naruko suddenly felt herself lifted into the air and being carried off somewhere. She didn't want this, she wanted out of this sack! She struggled and squirmed, trying to break free, but it was all futile. Her abductor, obviously annoyed by all her resistance, dropped the sack on the ground and kicked it several times, causing Naruko to whine in pain. That had *really* hurt, because whoever was doing this had not held back in the least. Now that she was too busy clutching her sides from pain to struggle anymore, her captor picked up the sack again and continued to carry it.

This continued for quite some time. Every now and then Naruko would make a feeble attempt at escape, but every time she did, the only thing it caused was for the whole kicking routine to be repeated. Eventually, Naruko heard her captor's footsteps change. Instead of the sound of shoes on a street, she heard the crunch of leaves and sticks. Where was this person taking her?

"There, this should be far enough no one finds you. Because you are such a cruel, evil being, I won't put you out of my misery quickly. Instead, I'll just leave you here to starve to death like you rabid animals deserve!" the voice angrily shouted at her. With one last, very vicious kick to the bag, Naruko finally heard her abuser walk out of the woods.

It took Naruko a long time to escape from the sack, and it was very painful. Whoever had tied her up was obviously not trained at it, because she was, eventually, able to wiggle her hands out of their bindings, although it did cause a _nasty_ rope burn. After that, it was a little easier to free her feet and get the gag out of her mouth. Getting out of the sack itself proved challenging for the young kitsune, but not near as challenging as it would have been for a 5 year old human girl. She was eventually able to tear a hole in the tough fabric because of her somewhat claw-like nails. She looked around herself and... had no idea where she was, other than the forest. Exhausted, she found the softest bit of ground she could find, curled up, and cried herself to sleep.

 _1 year and 2_ _months later_

Naruko was getting used to living in the forest. After what happened at the orphanage, she had become quite scared of going too near the village. Of course, when she was _really_ hungry, she would risk it to try and scavenge food along the outskirts that some wasteful person threw out instead of finishing, but she usually just scavenged edible plants, or hunted for small rodents or insects to eat. The taste was... difficult to get used to at first, compared to what she had at the orphanage from Furi-obaa-san, but it was better than starving to death.

It was one of those times she had decided to scavenge a little closer to the village. She had been having a hard time finding all the food she needed. She already knew that as winter time approached, it meant less choices of things to eat. Naruko suddenly heard a flurry of motion coming from her right, past some bushes. She decided to investigate, in hopes that it was a squirrel or something. If she caught a squirrel to eat it would mean she could avoid trying to steal food from the village and risk another beating.

 _Meanwhile_

Hyūga Hinata was scared. A group of older boys, probably ones that had just started in the academy, were pushing her around. They kept calling her an arrogant Hyūga and telling her to apologize for bumping into one of the boys. But even though she HAD apologized, apparently it wasn't enough to satisfy them. They shoved her on the ground and the leader put his foot on the back of her head, demanding that she apologize again.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry, I-I r-really didn't m-mean to b-bump into y-"

 ***CRASH, SMACK***

"Owww! What the hell was that?!" asked the leader of the bully brigade.

When Hinata looked up, she saw a redheaded girl about her age, but that girl looked... very different than most girls their age. Hinata had never seen a girl with fox ears and a tail before. And they looked _real_ too, because they moved. She didn't know of any accessory that moved like that. The girl was wearing what basically amounted to dirty rags with how damaged and covered in mud and dirt she was. Her teeth, which she was baring at the bullies while she _growled_ at them, looked a bit sharper than what she had seen on... well... anyone, before. She was crouched, apparently ready to jump at Hinata's would-be tormentors. The redhead's outright _feral_ appearance was shocking to the young Hyūga girl, but she was grateful to be saved nevertheless.

 **"Leave** **her alone!"** Naruko growled out loudly, furiously. The bullies, terrified by the appearance of the newcomer, pissed themselves on the spot before running away, all of them needing a change of pants after the fright of seeing such a demonic-looking redhead. With that done, Naruko straightened up out of her crouch, seeming to relax. "I hate people like that..." she muttered to herself, having forgotten that Hinata was still there.

"U-um, t-thank y-you.. EEP!" Hinata stuttered out, squeaking in surprise at Naruko spinning around so quickly in her own surprise. Now that she could see the fox girl a little better, she noticed a few more things about her appearance. One was that her eyes were a vibrant violet, with slits for pupils. Two, were some whisker birthmarks on the strange redhead's cheeks. Three, the girl was very thin. _'S-she is TOO_ _t-thin_ ,' Hinata thought, _'she m-must be hu-hungry.'_

Fortunately, the fox girl seemed to relax a little when she saw the Hyūga heiress, deeming her not to be a threat. The redhead still seemed wary, however. "D-do you w-w-want th-this a-a-apple? I-its the l-least I c-c-can do to th-thank you for h-helping me" Hinata blushed as she offered an apple from the lunch she had been planning to eat to Naruko. Hinata blinked in surprise at how quickly the redhead not only took the apple, but ate the _whole_ thing, not even leaving behind the core or stem. Hinata giggled in amusement when she realized what happened and saw the grateful expression on the strange girl's face.

"Lady Hinata!" a voice yelled "Get away from that filthy creature!" Hinata recognized it as the voice of the guard her father assigned her, a member of the Hyūga branch family.

"B-b-but..."

"Get away from Lady Hinata, you monster!" The Hyūga bodyguard roared at Naruko, aiming a kick at her and connecting solidly. Naruko yelped in pain, saw the hatred in the man's eyes, and scampered off deeper into the forest, fearful of receiving another beating from the villagers.

Hinata reached her hand in the direction Naruko ran off, even as her other hand was grabbed and dragged by the bodyguard. Hinata had wanted to learn more about the girl, she didn't seem like a bad person, a little strange maybe, but not bad. Her bodyguard told her "Lady Hinata, we must report to Hokage-sama about the creature that attempted to attack you."

"B-b-but she d-didn't!" Hinata started to exclaim, before she realized she was being ignored. As usual. With that, she just sighed and allowed herself to be escorted to Hokage tower.

 _In the Hokage's office_

The Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, was not a man you would think as someone who struggled with depression. But here he was, lamenting over the fact he had failed in his promise to his friend, Kurama. He had promised the fox he would look after his kit, Naruko, but she had gone missing over a year ago. _'I'm sorry, Kurama, I have failed in my promise to you. You trusted me to look out for her and now she's missing for over a year... It is likely that she's long since dea-'_

"Hokage-sama!" he heard shouted before his office was barged into, quite rudely, by a Hyūga branch family member dragging the Heiress of the Hyūga clan by the wrist. Hiruzen sighed and studied the face of the man and little girl. The man was clearly in a state of panic, but the girl looked... disappointed and a little worried? Most people would think that the two are worried about the same thing, but the Sandaime Hokage was canny and wise enough to suspect that the Hyūga heiress was worried for an entirely different reason than her guard.

"What is it?" the Hokage sighed tiredly, not in the mood to reprimand the man for his rudeness.

"The kitsune bitch is still alive and tried to attack Lady Hinata in the forest along the northern outskirts to the village! I request a team of ANBU dispatched to kill the monster as quickly as possible before it can cause any more harm!"

"What?! Are you sure it was her?" the Hokage asked frantically.

"Absolutely! Red hair, fox tail and ears, violet fox eyes, and absolutely feral by the looks of it! I kicked at it to shoo it away and ran here as fast as I could to report," the man replied urgently.

"And what say you, Hinata-chan? Did this really happen?" asked the Hokage kindly.

"A-a-a g-girl that l-looked like th-that saved m-me from some b-b-bullies, but she d-didn't a-attack me. H-he did k-kick her, though," Hinata answered timidly. Hiruzen nodded in understanding while the Hyūga man looked shocked and doubtful. "Hebi-san, please arrest this man and take him to the T and I department. You and Ibiki are permitted to do whatever you wish to him there. Tenzō-kun, please search for Naruko and bring her here unharmed if you find her. Inu-kun, please escort young Hinata here back to the Hyūga estate" the Hokage ordered, feeling a fire of determination in him again now that he knew Naruko was still alive.

The female Torture and Interrogation ANBU, "Hebi," grabbed the man roughly, seemingly excited at the prospect of being allowed to torture the Hyūga man, who now looked utterly confused and scared of the sadistic aura radiating off the woman. "Inu" and "Tenzō" just sighed and shook their heads at the woman's antics before leaving via _sh_ _unshin_ to complete the tasks the Hokage had ordered them to do.

 _6 Months later_

Shikamaru was laying in a field in the outskirts of Konoha, watching clouds while his best friend, Chōji, sat next to him, eating a bag of chips. He found this relaxing; a good escape from his troublesome, nagging mother while his father was working on something for the Hokage. He would play shogi with his father later.

Quite abruptly, he heard a loud rustling of some bushes near the edge of the clearing. He lifted his head up and looked towards the bushes, while Chōji did the same. Soon enough, a redheaded girl near their age came stumbling out of the bushes, sniffing the air quite obviously, as if she were a member of that troublesome Inuzuka clan. But what made this girl even more troublesome than the Inuzuka clan was that she had _fox ears and a fox tail._ For as long as Shikamaru could remember, Konohagakure no Sato seemed to have had a _massive_ hatred toward foxes, though he didn't really feel the same. He supposed it made sense, considering what happened on the day of the Kyūbi, but that was a single demon fox, not **all** foxes of any size, shape or variety!

"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed as he saw the strange fox girl stumble towards them, eyes somewhat glazed and with a ravenous expression on her face, eyes locked on Chōji's now empty bag of chips. He did not miss the fact that the girl was way too thin, looking as if she were half-starved.

Unfortunately for the girl, she did not make it to her goal. She passed out and fell face first into the ground. "Oi! That looks bad Shikamaru, we have to help her. She's looks like she hasn't had a good meal in forever!" Chōji said, shocked at the state the poor girl was in. It gave Chōji shudders just imagining going that long without food.

Shikamaru sighed tiredly. "How troublesome, we need to get her to a restaurant that has been opened by recent immigrants to Konoha. Know any good ones?" he asked his friend. Choji thought about this for a moment. His favorite barbeque joint was out of the question as the owners were born and raised in Konoha. Suddenly, it came to him. "There's a new ramen shop that opened about a month ago. Teuchi-san moved from a smaller town somewhere else in Hi no Kuni to Konohagakure around then. We could take her there," he answered. Shikamaru nodded as he picked up the unconscious girl. "That'll work. Lead the way," the lazy boy said to his friend.

As they were headed into the village, Shikamaru and Chōji ran into their fathers, Nara Shikaku and Akimichi Chōza, who seemed to be on their way out of the village. When both men stopped and stared at the girl with wide eyes, Shikamaru realized he had gotten himself into a _much_ more troublesome situation than he had first realized.

"How the-?!" Chōza said loudly in shock.

"Shikamaru, how did you manage to do such a troublesome thing as stumbling across the very girl the Sandaime Hokage has had Jōnin _and_ ANBU trying to find for the last 6 months with no success?" Shikaku asked his son in amazement.

Upon hearing this, Chōji shouted at the top of his lungs from surprise "WHAT? YOU'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR 6 MONTHS? SHE LITERALLY JUST STUMBLED UP TO US AND PASSED OUT!?" Unfortunately, this loud noise was able to wake Naruko up, who, upon realizing she was being carried toward the village that abused her so much, instantly decided to try and escape, struggling fiercely to get free from Shikamaru's grip.

"Ow! Dammit, this troublesome girl doesn't seem to want to go to - OW! - the village at all! Owww! She keeps scratching and struggling!" Shikamaru complained. Chōza, taking pity on his son's friend, took her from Shikamaru's arms, knowing he'd have a better chance at keeping the feral, terrified girl under control. Shikaku sighed, facepalmed, and said that he would go report this to the Hokage while the others made sure the crazed girl got something to eat.

 _Meanwhile, in_ _the Hokage's office_

It's been 6 months and still no sign of her?! Where the hell did Naruko go?" The Hokage asked the ANBU captain, Inu, incredulously. "It hasn't been _no_ sign of her, sir. My dog summons **have** caught her scent every now and then, but... we just can't seem to find her. The trail just disappears whenever we follow it. We know she is out there, and alive, but we have no idea how to actually find her," the silver haired ANBU replied, feeling slightly embarrassed that two ANBU squads have been unable to find the fox girl for so long. Not to mention the standing orders for any jōnin not currently on a mission to aid in the search. Hiruzen rubbed his temples in frustration before lighting his pipe, deciding he needed to smoke to deal with said frustration.

At that moment, Shikaku appeared in the room via _shunshin._ "Hokage-sama, we've found her, but the current situation is... troublesome," said the Jōnin commander.

The Hokage stood quickly, alarmed at Shikaku's description of the situation. "Lead the way, and fill me in on the details as we go. Inu, pass this along to the search parties," Hiruzen commanded as he and Shikaku left.

As Shikaku described what had happened, the old Hokage could do nothing but facepalm at how Naruko had been recovered.

 _At Ichiraku Ramen_

The girl had struggled most of the way there, though she had started getting tired towards the end of the group's journey to the ramen eatery. Now everyone was there, including Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shikaku, Shikamaru, Chōza, Chōji, and Naruko. Surprisingly, Naruko was behaving herself. She was sitting as Chōza had placed her, on a stool facing the counter. The reason why she was so well behaved is that her curiosity of the wonderful, appetizing smells far overpowered her fear right now. She was sniffing the air rapidly, looking around herself, trying to find the source of the amazing aroma.

"I'll pay for everyone as a job well done on finding Uzumaki Naruko," the Hokage declared happily. Shikamaru and Shikaku shared a look with each other. Both of them realized that offering to feed 2 Akimichi men and a half-starved, somewhat feral kitsune girl would **NOT **turn out well for the leader of Konohagakure no Sato.

About that time, Teuchi served everyone their first bowl. Just as the Akimichi men took their first mouthful of the pork ramen they both decided to order, everyone heard an odd clinking sound coming from Naruko. They turned and looked at her curiously. What they saw shocked them. She was chewing on her bowl, somewhat desperately, with it already empty, a bit of broth on the corner of her mouth. Everyone paled at the sight. The Hokage, the Naras, and the Akimichis paled because they had NEVER seen someone eat faster than an Akimichi. And this wasn't just a little faster. It seemed impossibly fast. Teuchi paled because he was wondering just how fast he would have to get the strange girl refills in order to prevent his actual dishes from being eaten as well. He hoped he could keep up. He quickly put another bowl in front of the voracious redhead as he called for his daughter with an edge of panic in his voice, "Ayame, I need you to go to the market and buy more ingredients, NOW." Ayame came out from the back, to answer her father, "Otou-san, can't it wait I w- OH," she said when she saw how fast Naruko inhaled another bowl of ramen. "Y-yeah on it!" Ayame answered as she ran out of the shop and towards the market as quickly as if she were trying out to be an Olympic sprinter. Meanwhile, the Akimichi men took this as a challenge to their reputation as the biggest eaters in the Hidden Leaf, so they started eating as much as they could and as fast as they could as well. "Troublesome," both Nara men declared at the same time.

 _Some time later_

"How did she out-eat all of us combined? Including two Akimichis?" asked the Hokage in pure shock. This was unprecedented for any Akimichi to be outeaten by anyone not of their own clan. Especially the head of the clan and his son!

"Otou-san, I think I'm in love," Chōji told his father, staring at the finally satisfied kitsune girl, dazed by her eating abilities. Chōza nodded in approval at his son, smiling at him. Both Nara men facepalmed at Chōji's comment. "She is definitely a troublesome one, Shikamaru," Shikaku told his son. Shikamaru nodded in agreement.

"Here's the bill, Hokage-sama," Teuchi handed Hiruzen the bill. The Sandaime hesitantly looked at the bill and saw the numbers. He almost fainted right then. He himself had eaten 3 bowls, the Nara men had 2 each, Chōji had 17 bowls and Chōza had 21. Naruko, by herself, ate 52 bowls of ramen. Bringing the total to 97 bowls of ramen. The Hokage laughed nervously, "Haha, so about splitting the bill..?" He looked up to see everyone gone except Teuchi and Naruko, who seemed to be happily asleep after her meal, leaning on the counter. With a sigh, the Hokage paid the amount, crying internally at the financial blow he had just received. Teuchi smiled at his daughter as he watched them leave, "I think that little redhead girl is my new favorite customer." Ayame laughed, not disagreeing with her father in the least.

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 **A/N: A dark start to the chapter, but some happy and funny moments at the end. Thanks for reading again, and please review so I know if I made any mistakes, what I can improve on, and what kind of things you think I did right!**

 **Edit (9/19/2018): Finding errors every time I go back and read it. Oh well, maybe I'll get rid of all of them eventually.**

 **Until next time!**


	3. First Blood

**A/N: So, before starting the chapter and responding to reviews, I'd first like to cover what role I plan for the ANBU to serve in my story. I want to make sure they are very distinct, but not more or less important, than the other ranks of shinobi. The ANBU are basically going to have two purposes. First is to investigate and eliminate threats from within Konoha that have NOT been declared as missing-nin officially by the Council/the Hokage. Both ordinary ninja and ANBU will deal with official missing-nin like Orochimaru, but only ANBU will deal with the less publicly known problems (like Itachi does with the Uchiha coup d'etat). The second thing they will do is be a fast acting response team to immediate threats. The reason their identity is hidden is so that when they are investigating or "dealing with" internal threats, it won't cause any hard feelings towards the ninja who is actually behind the mask from people living in the village.**

 **ANBU are comprised of ninja of chūnin and above. They are chosen based on their ability to be discreet and their extreme loyalty to the village.** **Many ANBU members also perform duties as regular ninja outside of ANBU. For example, Anko is Hebi when she is dealing with internal traitors as an ANBU, but just Anko when dealing with foreign nin or those officially declared missing-nin. Most characters within the story will not realize that it is her, but you, my lovely readers, will. ANBU would disguise themselves sufficiently to hide their identities, but I, as a writer, want my readers to be able to keep track of what character is doing what.**

 **Well** **, that's enough rambling before the story. I'll respond to reviews after the chapter!**

 **I don't own Naruto. I'd have a lot more money if I did.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

 _2 weeks later, Hokage office_

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed, feeling troubled. It had already been two weeks since they had recovered Naruko, but the girl still hadn't spoken a word; at least that he had heard. He had visited her in the abandoned apartment he had set up for her in one of the less populated areas of Konohagakure no Sato, after somehow convincing the young kitsune to _not_ run back into the forest at the first opportunity she had. He had wanted to have her stay with him, for her own protection, but the problem was that he lived in the most populated area of the village. He was sure that the poor girl's nerves were not ready for that, seeing as how skittish she seemed. He couldn't blame her, after all she had gone through at the hands of the demon-hating villagers. He thought back to the night she had been recovered.

 _Flashback_

 _Hiruzen carried the young, tired girl, who was finally full after emptying his wallet, towards the apartment he had arranged for her, should she ever be found. He was NOT putting her back in the orphanage after he had discovered what they had done. His ANBU had investigated and found the culprit, and she had been arrested, but the other workers there surely held some ill will towards Naruko. Plus, she had already proven that she could fend for herself to some degree, having survived that long in the forest. He hoped that having an apartment in a lower population area of the village would at least make it easier for her to do that, however. At least it would serve as a shelter from bad weather for her, if nothing else._

 _The girl he was carrying stirred, looking up at him from his arms with bleary eyes. "Ah, I see you are awake, Naruko-chan," the Sandaime told the girl. Her ears perked a bit in recognition of her name, and she didn't struggle to escape like he had been told she had done previously. 'A good sign,' the Hokage thought to himself, 'maybe there is hope she can trust humans again.' Hiruzen decided to try more conversation with the girl. "Are you feeling better after getting some food in you?" he asked her. She perked up at that, with a small smile, shining eyes, and a tail moving back and forth rather quickly in excitement at the memory. She nodded quickly, clearly very pleased at the memories of the feast she had devoured. Hiruzen chuckled at her excited response and smiled. 'It is good to see her like this. I'm sure Kurama and Kushina would have loved to see her smile like that,' the man thought to himself._

 _At about this time, the pair had reached the empty apartment building that Hiruzen had arranged. Naruko stared at the building in curiosity as the Hokage took her inside and set her down, allowing her to stand for herself in the room he had furnished for her. She examined her surroundings curiously, looking at everything carefully, even going so far as sniffing every peice of furniture for a few seconds before moving onto the next one._

 _"I want you to stay here, and not in the forest. Can you do that for me?" Hiruzen asked. The girl stiffened at the suggestion, clearly nervous at the idea. This old man didn't *seem* to want to hurt her, but the idea sounded crazy. Live in the village with all the people who kept trying to hurt her? Was he crazy? She looked out the window towards the forest, then back at the old man. She kept looking back and forth between the two nervously. Hiruzen sighed. He had expected her to react this way. "There aren't many people in this area of the village, and you'll have shelter from bad weather. Plus, this way, I can make sure you get the food that you need," he told her. That did it. At the mention of guaranteed food, her eyes lit up again and she nodded in agreement._

 _"Good. I'll come visit you every day, then. I'll see you tomorrow," he told her as he left her and headed home for the night._

 _Flashback end_

 _'Well, even if she hasn't spoken a single word yet, at least she seems to understand what other people say. I guess it will just take some time for her to open up enough to speak. She did go a long time without talking to anyone, after all,'_ Hiruzen thought to himself. He was pleased that she seemed to be rather curious. The girl always seemed to enjoy listening to him talk about various things, but she always seemed especially interested when he told her about what the ninjas of the village did. _'Maybe that would be good for her? She IS the daughter of Kushina as well, who was one of the greatest kunoichi this village has ever seen, after all. I can already tell her chakra levels are going to be immense... no, already ARE immense, considering both of her parents. Not to mention the fact she somehow evaded some of the top ninja in the village for months. I still have no idea how she managed that...'_ the elderly Hokage thought. He sighed in relief as he finished the last peice of paperwork for the day. He finally could go visit Naruko and see how she was doing.

 _Meanwhile, in an alleyway near the market_

Naruko was starting to get a little more comfortable staying in the village. She still wasn't completely at ease, but she had gotten to the point where she was willing to explore a little rather than just sit in her apartment all day. The nice old man, who was apparently called "the Sandaime Hokage" or "Sarutobi Hiruzen," had given her a little bit of money so she could go to that ramen stand she had fallen in love with, Ichiraku Ramen. And, as much as ramen would now and forever be her favorite food after that feast she had eaten, she **did** want to eat other things from time to time, like the apple that nice girl had given her a while back. This led Naruko to decide to try going to the market and seeing if any of the shopkeepers would be as nice as Teuchi-san and his daughter.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. As she entered the market cautiously and approached one of the stalls, the owner took one look at her and yelled "AAHHHH! IT'S THE DEMON!" and immediately started trying to hit her with a broom that he had pulled from behind the counter. Having heard this, everyone turned to see her, and glared with icy cold eyes at her. Naruko, realizing that this was a bad sign, immediately took off running. A mob soon formed chasing after her, carrying various objects to hit her with, such as brooms, sticks, or anything else that they could grab.

She ran and ran, finally shaking off the angry mob that was chasing her by ducking quickly into an alleyway. Breathing heavily, she hadn't noticed the group of scruffy-looking men sitting there already. She leaned against a wall, breathing heavily from all the running.

"Oi, oi, isn't that the demon bitch that has been seen around town lately?" One of the men asked. "Yeah, I think it is," another replied. Naruko stiffened at the unexpected and hostile-sounding voices. She looked up to see a group of men circling around her, glaring at her with cold eyes.

One of the men grabbed her neck and squeezed, making it hard for her to breathe. She pulled at his hand but was unable to get him to let go. "Oi, let's have a little 'fun' with her before we kill the bitch," one of the men suggested. The man choking her smirked and responded, "Way ahead of you," as he reached to undo his pants.

Naruko was panicking. She knew what these men were intending to do to her. She saw the look in their eyes and smelled their 'excitement' with the keen sense of smell she had inherited as a fox demon. She didn't notice the angry red chakra forming on her hand. She didn't notice that a second tail grew next to her first one. All she wanted to do was get this man away from her, NOW. She didn't want any part of what they were planning for her. She raised her chakra-covered hand to his chest and pushed, trying to push him off of her. However, instead of her hand pushing him back, it instead went **through** the man's chest. His eyes opened wide in pain and shock, as he dropped to the ground, lifeless.

"OH SHIT!" one of the men yelled in shock and fear, backing away from the redheaded kitsune girl. "She just put her FUCKING ARM through the boss! Fuck, fuck!" another yelled as the group turned to run away. "THE MONSTER KILLED KENCHI, DAMN IT, GET AWAY FROM ME YOU MONSTER," the final one yelled as they all ran away.

Naruko just stood there, staring at her arm, and the body, in shock.

 _Back with the Hokage, en route to Naruko's apartment_

Sarutobi Hiruzen heard the shouts and commotion of men running out of a back alley. It would have been hard to miss with how loud they were, even if he had not been a top class shinobi. _'Oh no... something must have happened involving Naruko!'_ the old man thought in a panic. Quickly, he dashed into the alleyway the men had just run out of. When he saw Naruko, leaning against the wall, arm covered in blood, and the man, a hole through his chest and his pants open and around his waist, he felt a sense of disgust and dread. Quickly, he moved forward to check on his surrogate granddaughter.

"Naruko, are you okay?" Hiruzen asked, voice laced with worry and urgency.

Looking up at the elderly man, Naruko cringed and refused to make eye contact. She knew his job was to protect the village. He probably would hate her now that she killed someone in the very village he was meant to protect.

"I d-didn't mean to... he was going to... and I panicked.. I just w-was going to push him away a-and..." she looked down at her arm again, trembling. She just knew that she had lost the trust of one of the few people who had ever been nice to her. She just knew he was going to throw her out of the village, or worse, have her killed for being such a danger. So it was to her great surprise when, instead, the old man pulled her into a hug.

"I'm glad he wasn't able to do anything to you," Hiruzen said. Naruko looked up at the Hokage in shock.

"...You don't hate me? I k-killed ..." she started.

"No, I don't. You did the right thing, Naruko. I'm not going to do anything bad to you and I don't want you feeling guilty, either," the Hokage told the girl sternly. Her eyes flew wide open in shock and confusion. "What he was doing was wrong, Naruko. No one should force themselves on anyone else in _that_ way. If you hadn't killed him, he would have likely done that to someone else. Not only did you protect yourself, but you protected who knows how many others by disposing of a dangerous threat to innocent people," Hiruzen explained, seeing her confusion. "B-but aren't I a d-danger to people, too? I j-just..." she started, before the Hokage stopped her again by raising his hand in the 'stop' gesture.

"I suppose, in a way, you are. But so am I, if that's the case. In fact, most people _can_ be a danger if they want to be," the Sandaime started to explain before Naruko interrupted him in confusion. "I don't understand..?" The Hokage sighed, and said, "Let me finish. As I was saying, it isn't about whether you are dangerous or not. It is about what decisions a person makes. Their character, if you will. Do you want to cause harm to people, other than to protect yourself and those you care about? Regardless of whether they did anything bad or not?"

Naruko thought on this for a brief moment, then shook her head, finally realizing what the Hokage meant. "No, I just want people to accept me for me," she replied.

Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled at her and nodded, "I want that for you, too. But I must apologize, Naruko. I should have assigned an ANBU to protect you. I know the villagers don't understand you yet, and treat you badly because of it," he said. Her tails and ears drooped at this. She didn't understand why the villagers treated her like this. "Jiji, why _DO_ the villagers treat me like that? I'm guessing it has something to do with my ears and tail, but..." she asked, hoping he could explain it to her.

"I think you mean tails, Naruko-chan," the Hokage said with a bit of amusement in his voice. "Eh? But I only have one - oh. WAIT WHAT? WHEN AND WHY DID I GET ANOTHER TAIL?" Naruko started to say in confusion, which quickly turned to surprise as she looked behind herself and saw not one, but two tails. The old man chuckled at her reaction and said, "Well, I think I can answer all your questions, but I'd rather save that for tomorrow. For now, why don't you get cleaned up and we can grab some ramen at Ichiraku's."

"WOOHOO! YEAH!" the girl cheered excitedly, much to the amusement of Hiruzen.

* * *

 **A/N: So I almost combined this chapter with the start or all of the next one, but I'm still not sure where exactly I'm going with it past a certain point. I still have ideas to write, but this seemed like a good break in the action. So another update may be coming either later today or tomorrow, assuming I don't get stuck on ideas. Either way, I'm going to be writing some more right after posting this one.**

 **Responses to Reviews:**

ThunderClaw03: **Yeah, I know I've been giving Naruko a tough time as is. Chapter 2 AND chapter 3 are really rough on her. I definitely don't plan to make it ALL bad for her; she will still make some friends and such. But I honestly cannot imagine that the villagers wouldn't give her even worse treatment than in the original series with her fox ears and tails. Her troubles are definitely not over, but this is Naruko we're talking about. She's tenacious and will fight hard to not only survive, but to thrive.**

PinkiePieParty122894: **I'm glad you have enjoyed the story so far! I'll do my best to keep the updates as often and as good as I can. Honestly, my ideas I used in chapter 2 were the ones that motivated me to, instead of just keeping the ideas in my head, actually write them out and share my story here. Especially the whole "Chōji and Shikamaru encounter a feral Naruko" idea. I figured that would be "troublesome" enough for Shikamaru, haha.**


	4. Revelations, Outfits, and Encounters

**A/N: So, I've been going back over my previous chapters, fixing errors and decided to make a minor change. Instead of blue eyes, I decided Naruko should have purple (actually violet, to be more specific) eyes, as I think it feels a little more fitting to her heritage, especially the demonic side of it from Kurama. If anyone got spammed with updates any time I made a correction, I apologize. I'll try to avoid that in the future by reading through a bit more carefully and trying to do all my corrections at once, rather than saving them one at a time.**

 **This chapter is probably going to be long thanks to a huge amount of exposition and world building. Sorry if that gets boring, but I feel it is probably needed.**

 **Anyway, I don't own Naruto. Don't believe anyone who tells you I do. I have no idea why they would do that.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

 _Hokage's office, next day_

Sarutobi Hiruzen was doing his least favorite activity, paperwork, hoping that Naruko would show up soon. The Uzumaki girl should have been escorted to his office over an hour ago. He sighed and shook his head in exasperation. He should have known better than to assign escort duty to Inu. That man is almost always late to everything. After he finished the last document he had on his desk (for now), he leaned back in his chair, smoking his pipe while thinking about the previous day.

 _Flashback_

 _After the girl had cleaned the blood of that... **scumbag**_ _off of herself, Hiruzen and the young kitsune headed over to Ichiraku ramen. He figured it would be a good idea to cheer her up and get the girl's mind off things. Sure, he was pleased she was finally speaking, but the circumstances surrounding that were abhorrent to the old man. He made a mental note to have his ANBU operatives track down the other men to get some answers... and **punish** them, should it be warranted. He did not know to what extent they were involved in such... activities._

 _When they had arrived at Ichiraku's, Naruko had greeted Teuchi san with a, "Hey, Teuchi-oji-san!" as if she did this all the time. Apparently not, however, as Teuchi's eyes widened, surprised at the girl's voice and responded, "Oh hello, Naruko-chan. I see that you are speaking now?"_

 _"Yep," the fox girl answered simply and cheerfully, already sniffing the air for the scent of ramen. Ayame laughed at the younger girl's antics, happy to see she seemed to be opening up a little to the people around her._

 _Flashback end_

Hiruzen was certainly glad that Naruko had not seemed to have as big of an appetite as she did the first time they went to Ichiraku ramen. She had only eaten 20 bowls, yesterday. He supposed that was probably more normal for the girl, and the previous 52 bowls was merely a result of simply not having enough food for a fox demon her age available when she was living in the forest. They did tend to have larger appetites than humans, Kurama had once told him.

 _*Knock Knock*_

"Come in," the Sandaime said. When the door opened and he saw Inu lead Naruko in, he could not help but smile at the girl. However, he did need to reprimand Inu for his tardiness. As he turned to glare at the perpetually late ANBU, Inu quickly said, "I'll take my leave then, Hokage-sama," and _shunshin'_ ed away, clearly knowing a tongue-lashing was coming. Hiruzen sighed, deciding that he would speak to the man later, one way or another. But he had more important things to do right now, namely, sate his surrogate granddaughter's curiosity.

Addressing the young girl now, Hiruzen asked, "Now, if I recall correctly, you had asked why the villagers treat you unfairly, and why you have more than one tail?" Naruko nodded, paying close attention to the old man's words. She clearly was desperate for answers. "Because, to put it bluntly, the civilian councillors are mostly either idiots or easily manipulated. They all either refuse to believe an Uchiha would have manipulated the Kyūbi with the hypnotic power of the Sharingan, or they have given into Shimura Danzō's political pressure to fit his agenda," Hiruzen said angrily. Naruko, surprised by the venom in her surrogate grandfather's words, asked "What do you mean?"

Hiruzen sighed and proceeded to explain the true events of the Day of the Kyūbi. That the Kyūbi was not some evil monster who attacked the village for the sheer sake of destruction, but had been manipulated against his will by an Uchiha who called himself 'Madara.' That the council had hidden this fact from the majority of people living in Konohagakure no Sato, and just allowed everyone to believe the kitsune race were simply evil.

"Much of the civilian council see the entire Uchiha clan as saints, rather than individuals; some good, some malicious. Fortunately, I was able to keep put a law in place keeping your parentage secret, or things would be even worse," the Hokage told the fox girl. She simply tilted her head questioningly, waiting for him to explain what he meant by that.

"It just so happens that your father was the Kyūbi no Yoko, Kurama, ruler of all foxes, demon or otherwise. The very kitsune that was forced to attack the village. Since he died from that battle, you are the inheritor of his position and will be the next Kyūbi. Well, at least once your other tails grow in," Hiruzen explained to the girl, hoping this would not be too much for her to take in. It was. She fainted from shock. Hiruzen sighed wearily.

 _After some time_

Naruko had finally woken up. After having taken a few more minutes to process what she had been told, she asked the Sandaime if he had any other things she should know. He sighed and said that there was more he could tell her, but that it would have to wait for another day. He felt she had enough to come to terms with already. She had still been worried about what kind of person her father had been, but Hiruzen assured her that he had been a good man. Perhaps a bit brash, aggressive, and rude like many demons are, but deep down he cared for his friends and wanted to be accepted, just like her. Naruko's eyes watered a little at that, happy to know her father wasn't a bad guy.

"Now, enough questions for today. I have an offer to make to you Naruko," the old man said.

"What is it?" the girl asked curiously. Hiruzen smiled at her and asked, "Would you like to train and become a ninja?" Naruko's eyes widened at this. "I can do that? Even with how this village sees me?" she asked, almost pinching herself to make sure this wasn't a dream.

"Of course," Hiruzen answered, "In fact, ninjas are more likely to be accepting of you than the civilians are. Take Chōza and Shikaku for example. They are two of my most trusted jōnin, and I know both of their sons are going to be trained to become ninja as well." Naruko's tails waved around excitedly at the idea of getting to spend more time with people she knew accepted her, regardless of her being a fox demon. "And you're one too, right Jiji?" Naruko asked excitedly.

Hiruzen nodded, "That's right. The Hokage is the highest ranking ninja in the village."

"Then I'll be Hokage one day!" Naruko declared boldly and loudly, proud of having a goal. The Sandaime smiled warmly. He was sure, that with Naruko's conviction, that she would find a way to reach her dreams.

"But before that, how about we get you some nicer clothes for your ninja training? You can't attend the academy until the year you turn 8, or are going to turn 8, but I can get you started a little on my daily visits. And when you graduate, I'll tell you more about your family history," Hiruzen said, smiling at the excitable kitsune princess. "Let's do it! Dattebayo!" she cheered. Hiruzen laughed, remembering the similar phrase the girl's mother used to say.

Not being one for women's clothing shopping, Hiruzen had assigned Mitarashi Anko to assist the younger girl. She had recently been promoted from chūnin to, tokubetsu jōnin, or tokujō, so she had been informed about Naruko's heritage as was befitting of her new rank. More importantly, she was the perfect woman for the job. Although the woman seemed to slightly intimidate Naruko, Hiruzen knew that Anko would *NOT* put up with any shopkeepers mistreating Naruko. The woman knew what it was like to be ostracized. Because her old sensei was the traitorous snake Sannin, not many people trusted her, even though she was a loyal kunoichi of Konoha. Regardless, everyone knew not to get on her bad side, or they would have a very bad day, so they kept quiet. The only other worthy candidate was another tokujō, Yuhi Kurenai, but she was away on a mission at the moment. The only thing that truly worried Hiruzen was that Anko might encourage the young girl towards her... overtly bold fashion sense. Naruko was too young to be wearing an outfit as revealing as Anko's, in the Hokage's opinion. Now that he thought about it, he **really** wished Kurenai wasn't on a mission at the moment.

 _Later, after a long time in spent trying on different outfits_

Naruko was very happy with her new outfit. She was honestly glad that the Snake Mistress had been there with her for this; she doubted that half the things she wanted would have actually been done if not for Anko. For that matter, she doubted the owner of the clothing store would have even served her if they had not been terrified of Anko. Then again, they seemed pretty terrified of Naruko as well, so maybe they would have gone along with what she wanted. Rumors seemed to have spread about her killing that man in the alleyway. Naruko really didn't know how to feel about that. On the one hand, she felt like she was a little bit safer from being beaten by an angry mob, which, of course, was a good thing. However, it also meant that she received even more cold, fearful glares than ever before. As well as people going well out of their way to avoid her, such as crossing to the opposite side of the street when they saw her, or going inside the first building they could reach any time she passed them. That aspect of it was pretty disheartening; she didn't really want people to be afraid of her, either. She wanted friends and love, not hatred and fear.

Regardless, she had gotten the clothes she had wanted. She was wearing black shorts with thigh-high black leggings and shinobi sandals. Her top was the same shade of violet as her eyes, and just short enough to show only about an inch or so of midriff. Underneath that, she was wearing a mesh top, commonly worn by ninja that covered the rest of the way down to her shorts. On the front of the top was a white spiral, which, she had been told by the Hokage, was the Uzumaki clan symbol, as she was one of the last known members of it, as it was her mother's clan. On the back was a cute depiction of a fox's face, with the kanji for 9 (九) right below it in gold, as she had been told that her father, Kurama, had worn that kanji on his back as well as a sign of status. It had cost quite a bit, but she didn't care because her jiji had offered to pay for it as a present. Hiruzen, however, was going likely going to cry at the financial blow the girl had dealt him once he realized how much of his money she had spent. Again.

"Gaki, are you sure that it's okay for you to have that on your back? Hokage-sama did make a rule against revealing to the general public who your parents are, you know," Anko asked the proud kitsune girl. Naruko sighed and rolled her eyes before she replied, saying, "I'm sure, Anko-nee-san. I asked him before we left and he said that if I wanted to do it, I could, since the rule was meant for my sake anyway. If I want to be loud and proud about who I'm related to I can." Anko laughed at the girl's response, being pleased by the confidence Naruko possessed and how much it reminded Anko of herself. "Atta girl, you show them! I'll treat you to dango for that one," Anko said in reply. Naruko's tails waved about in excitement at the idea of being able to try another new food.

 _Meanwhile, with Kiba and Akamaru_

"Arf, arf! (The scent leads here, Kiba!)" Akamaru told his human partner, Inuzuka Kiba. Kiba scratched his head in confusion, "It just doesn't make any sense? Why is a fox just roaming around the village, even going so far as to walk up to this old abandoned-looking apartment? They usually avoid the village completely." Akamaru had no answer to that. He had no idea why a fox would come so close to the village either, seeing as the villagers seemed to despise foxes for whatever reason. While the two were looking at the door in confusion, trying to think of an answer, they heard footsteps approaching from behind them, followed by a loud female voice.

"OI! What are you doing hanging around here?"

Kiba and Akamaru turned to see who had shouted at them. The woman that had shouted seemed to be a kunoichi. She had her hair up in a spiky ponytail, and her outfit was downright nosebleed inducing. Wearing a tan coat left open and a miniskirt, Kiba could see that the **only** thing the woman was wearing underneath that was a fishnet mesh bodysuit. Beside the boldly dressed woman was a girl who looked to be about his age. Her appearance was equally as shocking to Kiba, but for different reasons. She had fox ears and two fox tails. _'Wait, WHAT?'_ Kiba thought to himself. Looking more closely, he saw that the girl had fiery red hair that matched the fur on her ears and tails, as well as bright, almost glowing, violet eyes with slits for pupils. She was wearing black shorts and a top the same color as her eyes, with a white spiral pattern on the front.

"Oh, uh, me and Akamaru found the scent of a fox. We were curious so we decided to track it," Kiba answered honestly. He had a mother and older sister, so he knew that it was a bad idea to lie in this situation. They could be **scary** when they wanted to be, and this woman was definitely giving off that 'do NOT lie to me' vibe right now.

Naruko bristled at that. She was sick of being referred to as an 'it' or a 'monster.' Most of the villagers treated her as if she were a thing, rather than a person. "I am not an it. I am a girl," Naruko told him angrily, glaring at the boy. Kiba held his hands up apologetically and said, in a slightly panicked voice, "Woah, woah, woah! I didn't mean it like that! I didn't know anything about you before! Well, still don't really, but you get what I'm saying, right? Anyway, It's pretty strange to see a fox girl, especially one with two tails." Anko glared at the boy angrily. Was he saying there was something wrong with her surrogate little sister? "What, you got a problem with that?" Anko asked aggressively, poking the boy in the chest to make her point.

"No no no! I just haven't seen someone like her before, I didn't mean it as a bad thing! She's actually kinda cute!" Kiba said in a rush, scared that the woman would do something painful if he didn't explain what he meant quickly. When he realized that he had called the girl cute, he blushed and looked away. He hadn't meant to say that out loud! "Damn right, she is!" Anko declared proudly, pulling Naruko to her side with one arm in a sisterly hug. Naruko's eyes widened and her face heated up. She was surprised and embarrassed by the two of them giving her compliments, even if it did make her really happy. She didn't often hear nice things about herself, being forced to listen to all the villagers whispering about how she was a 'monster' or a 'damn demon bitch' all the time with her sensitive hearing. She was a kitsune, not a dog, dammit! _'The proper term is vixen! Vixen!'_ Naruko mentally ranted.

"...Naruko," the kitsune girl told the boy.

"Huh?"

"You said you didn't know anything about me, right? The name is Uzumaki Naruko," she explained. Kiba blinked for a second and then replied, "Oh, yeah, I'm Inuzuka Kiba, good to meet'cha, Naruko." She smiled at having met another person who seemed to not hate her just for what she was. "Yeah, nice to meet you too. But hey listen, I just got home from a day out and I'd like to go inside, but you're kind of blocking my door...?" Naruko said, tired and hungry from a long day of shopping with Anko. "O-oh, right. Sorry about that. Yeah, I probably should go home too since it's getting close to dinner. I'll see you around, Naruko-chan!" the boy said as he ran off with his dog. "Sure, see you around, Kiba-kun!" Naruko replied before going inside. Anko laughed and shook her head at the pair. That was **before** she realized Naruko had closed the door on her. She had been planning to eat dinner with Naruko today!

"H-hey! Wait a sec!" Anko yelled to the door.

* * *

 **A/N: This encounter with Kiba does not guarantee that Naruko will end up with him, as I haven't decided that yet. I'm just setting up the possibility for later on down the line, if I go for that route. Same with Chōji having a crush on her after seeing her eating 52 bowls of ramen. Anyway, time to answer your comments. I did figure that Naruko and Anko would go through a lot of similar struggles so perhaps they could form a sisterly bond, or something. Also, will the Sandaime ever learn his lesson about letting Naruko have free reign with his wallet? The world may never know.**

 ** _Responses to reviews_ :**

Loganiscool: **Kiba IS one of the candidates I have been considering. I'm not guaranteed to do a pairing at all, but I'd say I'm more likely to do a pairing than none (Naruko deserves some love, I think). It definitely won't be anyone with a sharingan, though. Especially not an Uchiha after what she learned this chapter. Mostly considering Kiba, Shika, Choji, Gaara, and Lee for males (though I may or may not consider others). Haven't considered what females are options as a pairing other than Hinata. I guess I might consider anyone except Sakura, though some thought will have to be put into who would be most likely if it does go that direction. It has to be someone who will treat her well, and Sakura... probably won't be doing that in my story for quite some time.**

PinkiePieParty122894: **Haha, I'm still wondering that too. As I responded to Loganiscool, I've a few possibilities for both males and females, but if you have any specific suggestions for candidates, I'll consider them (No promises, it'll depend on where the story goes of course, but it'll at least give me some food for thought).**

ThunderClaw03: **Yeah, definitely don't want Naruko going on rampages even worse than Gaara, seeing as she has basically taken her father's role (though is still FAR weaker than he was at this point) and is unsealed... Yeah, that would be scary. She's already forming the start of some bonds that will get stronger over time.**


	5. Discoveries and Birthdays

**A/N: Hello again!** **This chapter has been a little more difficult for me to write. Honestly, I've been torn between skipping up to academy age, or covering some time in between first. I've ended up going with... well you'll see. My problem has been that lately, most of my ideas have been further into the future of this story, but I have to *get* there first. I've been tossing around ideas for what genin team assignments are going to happen in my story, but it isn't even time for that yet... Oh well.**

 **For those that haven't realized it yet, in the context of this story, the word kitsune will specifically be used to refer to fox demons, not regular foxes. This is just to make things a little easier on me, even if it isn't technically correct.**

 **I don't own Naruto. I do eat ramen, though.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

 _Unknown Location_

Naruko opened her eyes and looked around in confusion. She had thought she was in her apartment, getting ready to go to sleep, but she seemed to now be in a huge cavern of some sort. The area was lit by numerous torches, revealing 8 huge creatures sitting in a circle. To her left was some weird tanuki made out of sand, and to her right was a giant ox with... octopus tentacles? Around the circle were also: a two-tailed cat made of blue flames, a three-tailed spiky turtle, a four-tailed gorilla, what looked like a mix of a horse and a dolphin with five tails, a six-tailed slug with stubby arms and legs, and finally a seven-tailed rhinoceros beetle.

"Hey, is that the damn furball's new jinchūriki? How the hell did she get here? And where is that bastard anyway, I wanna kick his ass," the tanuki yelled.

"Quiet down, Shukaku. But I am curious as to who you are and how you are here, girl," the gorilla said. The ox snorted, "Come now, Son Gokū, she is clearly no jinchūriki with her ears and tails. That, and her scent is far too similar to Kurama to not be some relative of his."

Naruko's eyes widened at the mention of her father's name. "You knew my daddy?" she blurted out, staring at the ox.

"Hmm... it seems you were right, Gyūki. Looks like this is his kit. Where is your father, child?" the cat questioned. "I think she might have been implying he died somehow, Matabi," the turtle pointed out.

"You hadn't realized that, Isobu? I thought it was obvious with how he hadn't been showing up in the Bijū mindscape for a couple of years now. What do you think, Chōmei?" the slug said incredulously. The beetle laughed, "Sorry, Saiken, I didn't imagine one as powerful as Kurama dying. What about you, Kokuō?" "I noticed," the horse-dolphin replied.

"Gyahaha, this little runt is the leader of the kitsune now? I could crush her with one toe! How the mighty fox demons have fallen gyahahahaha!" Shukaku laughed.

Annoyed by the taunting of the Ichibi, Naruko angrily yelled, "Shut up, you annoying tanuki, or I, Uzumaki Naruko, will kick your ass! Dattebayo!" With that said, she huffed and crossed her arms, glaring at the annoying creature. At this, all of the Bijū except Shukaku laughed uproariously at the sand demon's expense.

"Hahaha, I like her spunk!" Son Gokū said approvingly.

"Hahahaha, she probably can too, even though she's still such a young kit! You always were the weakest of the Bijū, Shukaku!" Gyūki opined. The others nodded in agreement.

"Damn you all! I'll get you for this, you mini-furball!" Shukaku shouted, glaring at Naruko as he shimmered and disappeared. The kitsune girl stared at the spot where he vanished in confusion. "So, um... What are jinchūriki? Where did that jerk go? What is this place?" she asked, looking up at the remaining Bijū.

"This is a shared mindscape of the Bijū, the leaders of each of the major demon clans. We come here to discuss various matters, such as relations between the demon clans. He just left because you embarrassed him," Matabi explained to the young Kyūbi. "As for the jinchūriki," Son Gokū chimed in, "they are the humans that, when they were babies, other humans used fūinjutsu to seal us inside of. Don't you know that the jinchūriki are our living prisons?"

"They did **WHAT** to you? No way in hell am I going to let **ANYONE** do that to me!" Naruko yelled vehemently, her emotions swirling in a mixture of shock, rage, and panic. "...You mean to tell me you are currently unsealed, Naruko-chan?" Saiken asked. Naruko nodded in confirmation. "Hmm. Perhaps you can find a way to help release us if you are on the outside. Regardless, make sure that you do not get sealed. Even with all of our powers, it is not something a Bijū can escape so easily," Gyūki advised.

Naruko nodded, "Okay, I'll remember that. Now umm... how do I come and go from this place?" The Bijū all sweatdropped. The young kitsune princess had gotten here completely by accident, when she had only grown two tails so far. She had a lot of potential, obviously, but also had a lot to learn.

"Just close your eyes and imagine yourself wherever you were before you came here. To come back, do the same but imagine yourself here. Since it is a mindscape, it exists within your mind, as a mental link to us. You haven't actually left your physical location," Matatabi explained.

"Oh... Well okay, then? I guess I'll probably see you all around or something?" Naruko said, a little unsure of herself before she shimmered out of the shared mindscape.

 _October 10th, Naruko's 7th birthday_

Naruko sighed as she wondered around the village by herself. Hokage-jiji had said that he couldn't teach her about being a ninja today. Apparently, he had some important matters to attend to that couldn't wait. Naruko sat down with her back leaned against a building, knees curled up to her chest, and rested her head on her arms. This was the worst. The villagers were even more hostile to her than usual today, since it was the Day of the Kyūbi. She had gone looking for any of her friends, but she hadn't found anyone. Even though she could usually find and track her friends' scents, Chōji, Shikamaru, and Kiba's scents were all missing. She had even tried the Hyūga girl's scent, wasn't her name Hinata or something? It had been missing, too. To make matters worse, Ichiraku Ramen was closed for the day.

"Can't that demon have the decency to leave the village, at least on this day?"

"Of course not, it is a demon after all."

Naruko's ears and tails drooped lower and lower at the hostile whispers of the villagers. ' _Maybe they are right. Maybe I should have just stayed living in the forest. I'll miss the people who are nice to me, but at least I won't cause them problems with being associated with a demon,'_ Naruko thought to herself, depressed. Just as she was getting up to head out of the village, she heard a familiar voice shout to her.

"Oi, there you are Naruko! I've been looking all over for you," Mitarashi Anko said to her, relieved to have found the kitsune.

"Oh, hello Anko-nee-san," Naruko replied listlessly, with a dull expression in her eyes, as she looked towards the kunoichi approaching her.

To say Anko was unhappy at the younger girl's current state would be a huge understatement. "You've been listening to what the villagers say about you again, haven't you?" Anko asked, sighing. She had seen this a few times before from Naruko, and it was always from the younger girl listening to idiot demon-haters whisper about her.

"It's kind of hard not to," Naruko answered quietly, gesturing to her ears. She did have sensitive hearing after all. This, however, gave Anko an idea.

"Oh, so that means you have to listen to me if I do this?" Anko asked as she scratched behind one of Naruko's ears. Naruko melted at the contact. Her ears were really sensitive, and that felt really good. "N-no fair, Anko-nee. You know how I get when you do that," Naruko said, eyes slightly glazed over. "Shhh," Anko said, "Now, tell me what you are to me?"

"Y-your precious imōto that you would miss if she wasn't around?" Naruko answered shakily. Anko nodded, "Exactly. So no being depressed or paying attention to what they say about you." Naruko nodded in response weakly, having surrendered to the ear rubbing and scratching.

"That's more like it!" Anko cheered, pulling the kitsune girl into a tight hug. Naruko, now that she suddenly had a _very_ up close and personal view of Anko's breasts, was now finding it very difficult to breathe. "MMMPH! MMPH!" Naruko tried to shout as she struggled, attempting to get free from the relieved kunoichi. After about a minute, Anko released Naruko from the hug.

"For someone who 'loves me and would miss me if I were gone,' you sure do come close to suffocating me to death with your boobs way too often, Anko-nee-san," Naruko panted, slightly glaring at the woman. Anko laughed apologetically and scratched the back of her head. "Sorry Naruko-chan, but you are just way too huggable for me to resist," Anko said. Naruko snorted in amusement, rolled her eyes, and replied, "Trust me. I've noticed."

"Anyway Naruko-chan, come on, I've got something you'll want to see," Anko told the girl, grabbing her hand and pulling her along before she had a chance to respond. Naruko sighed, having learned it wasn't worth the effort of arguing with Anko when she was like this. "What is it?" Naruko asked, wondering what had Anko so excited. "You'll see when we get there. But not until then!" Anko said, remembering something she had forgotten. Before Naruko knew what was happening, she found herself being carried in Anko's arms, with her arms tied behind her back and her eyes blindfolded. Naruko squirmed half-heartedly, knowing she wouldn't actually escape from Anko's binding techniques. "What am I, a prisoner or something?" Naruko complained. Anko laughed and didn't reply, knowing the girl would like would happen next.

 _After some time..._

Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled in satisfaction. He had pulled some strings to make sure everyone he thought might want to be there could attend. It had taken some convincing of her father, but he had even managed to get Hyūga Hinata permission to come. He had not been keen on the idea of the Hyūga heiress associating with the demon, but the Sandaime had managed to get through to him in the end. They had set everything up in the upstairs portion of Ichiraku Ramen, where Teuchi and his daughter Ayame lived. When Anko burst dramatically into the room, carrying Naruko as if she were some kind of prisoner of war, everyone sweatdropped.

"Anko-san, was it really necessary to carry her here like that? I'm sure she figured some things out by her sense of smell alone," the Hokage deadpanned. Anko put the girl on her feet and said sheepishly, "Yeah, well, I thought it was a good idea until she listed off everyone who was here once we turned on the street. I'm not sure how she didn't find out sooner, actually."

I used a genjutsu that disguised the scents of everyone here. It only recently wore off. It would not do if she had found us while we were setting up," the Sandaime explained. Naruko squirmed slightly and asked, mildly annoyed, "Can I please be untied now, Anko-nee?" Anko sighed and cut the ropes, slightly disappointed that her plan to keep Naruko in the dark hadn't worked as well as she had hoped.

"Happy Birthday, Naruko!" cheered Chōza, Anko, Teuchi, Ayame, Chōji, Kiba, and Hiruzen. Hinata stuttered out a nervous, "H-h-happy b-birthday, Naruko-chan." Shikamaru said," It's troublesome to cheer like that, but happy birthday." Shikaku smacked the back of his son's head and said, "Troublesome son, just tell her happy birthday normally instead of making it awkward." Everyone sweatdropped at that, thinking that Shikaku had done basically the same thing he had scolded his son for doing.

Naruko's eyes teared up as she looked at everyone. Naruko closed her eyes, trying her best not to cry from the overwhelming emotions she felt. When she opened her eyes again to look at them, she spoke quietly, but with heartfelt words, "T-thank you all. I-I can't say how much this means to me coming from you all." She couldn't hold it in anymore. She let the tears flow, the joy of having people care about her being too much to hold back anymore. Everyone moved closer and took turns hugging Naruko. Even shy Hinata worked up the courage to hug the fox girl, though she blushed at having done so. _'How anyone can see her as an evil, emotionless monster is beyond me,'_ Hiruzen thought to himself as he watched Naruko, seeing how much this truly meant to her.

* * *

 **A/N: I wanted to do more with this chapter, but honestly, that was way too good of an ending point. If I had continued then I feel like I would have just ruined the pacing of the chapter. I'll continue with my plans in the next chapter, which I'll try to make longer, and hopefully sooner.**

 ** _Responses to reviews:_**

H3llion: **I probably won't make this particular story a harem. My current mindset is leaning towards several people being interested in Naruko, but she eventually decides on one. Because of her kitsune nature, she'll probably tease some people just to mess with them, but that doesn't mean she's actually interested in them that way. I'm definitely not going to have Naruko sleeping with every single person in Konoha or something ridiculous. At most 2 partners, and even that I doubt. Definitely think a single mate is enough for her. Once she decides on her mate, she will also be doing less flirting/teasing, as she will mostly want to save that for her partner. Other characters probably will end up being jealous, though.**

ThunderClaw03: **Thanks for the support! I'll keep them coming out as fast as the ideas come to me. Can't go much faster than that :P**

PinkiePieParty122894: **And I love your support, so I'm going to keep doing my best on this story :D**


	6. Progress and Pranks

**A/N:** **Even though I've known what I wanted to happen in this chapter for a while, I've not been sure how to execute it in a way that makes sense. I guess if you're reading this, I figured it out, but as I write this, I'm still not actually sure. In the meantime, I've been doing a little gaming and actually trying my hand at making homemade ramen. The broth, the noodles, all homemade. I would recommend giving it a try to anyone who does any cooking. Although it is a bit time consuming, the results are *so* worth it.**

 **Also, my update schedule is going to be a bit slower than it was when I first started writing. I'll be doing some travelling for the first week of October. So I need to prepare for that, as well as having things I need to do when I get back. I'll still be doing my best to write in my down time, though.**

 **I don't own Naruto. I just write fanfiction sometimes.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

 _Later, still at Naruko's birthday party_

Naruko froze and her eyes widened as she tasted the ramen Teuchi had prepared for the party. His ramen was always really good, but she could not comprehend the sensory overload she was experiencing now. Teuchi smiled, happy he was able to do something special for his favorite customer. "That's a special recipe I can't offer at Ichiraku. Not only does it take too long to prepare, but the ingredients are not common enough in Hi no Kuni to make enough of it," he explained to the ramen-loving girl.

Anko, meanwhile, was attempting to surprise the kitsune girl. She had failed in her attempt to make the party a surprise, but she would get her somehow, damn it! Suddenly an idea came to mind, causing Anko to smirk mischievously.

Seeing Anko's expression, Shikaku shook his head and muttered to the Sandaime, "Looks like Anko-san is going to do something troublesome again, Hokage-sama." Hiruzen sighed and facepalmed, knowing that his jōnin commander was right. He just didn't know how right, until...

Anko, who had been carefully sneaking up on the kitsune as to not alert her, leaned up close, and whispered "boo" in Naruko's ear just as the tokujō poked the younger girl on the back.

"KYAAAAA!" Naruko screamed and fell over into the floor, where she landed roughly. Anko's eyes widened at the girl's groan of pain. She had only meant to startle the girl a little bit, not possibly injure her! "Naruko, are you okay?! I only meant to-" Anko started, but soon cut herself off, eyes widening at the chakra swirling around the kitsune.

"H-hokage-sama, i-is Naruko-chan g-going to be o-o-okay? Sh-she's breathing kind of h-hard," Hinata asked the Hokage worriedly, as Kiba and Chōji moved towards Naruko to try and help their friend. Chōza and Shikaku, being jōnins and realizing the danger of the chakra fluctuating around Naruko, yelled, "Get back from her!" as they grabbed the two boys and pulled them to the far side of the room. Upon hearing the panic in the voices of the experienced ninja, everyone moved to the far side of the room, as the Hokage quickly put a barrier jutsu around them. Hinata, Kiba and Chōji were confused and shocked, worried about Naruko. Shikamaru was also worried, but based on his father's reaction, he had a pretty good idea that Naruko was about to cause some 'unintentional fireworks.'

Before anyone had the chance to comment anything else, they saw, as the kitsune girl was laying face-down, one of Naruko's tails start to swell up, much larger than normal. Her chakra flowed wildly all around her, going so far as to crack the windows from the pressure, causing everyone but the Sandaime's eyes to widen and their faces to pale. Only Hiruzen had expected this, and that was only because he had heard of this from Kurama.

Naruko screamed in pain as a disturbing ripping sound was heard. It truly sounded as if her very flesh was being ripped to pieces. Her swollen tail, which looked around twice its normal size started slowly separating into two tails, starting at the tip. Anko said quietly to herself, although everyone could hear her, "So she's getting her third tail..? I wonder if they're all going to be like this." This confused Teuchi, Ayame, Kiba, Akamaru, and Hinata. _'I wonder what she means?'_ they all wondered. Shikamaru, meanwhile, was deep in thought. He had seen the number 9 on the back of her clothes. His eyes widened at a thought. _'She couldn't be... could she? But she was born on the Day of the Kyūbi so it doesn't make sense!'_ the young genius thought to himself.

As her tail finished separating into two, the floor caught fire in a small circle around Naruko, much to the dismay and panic of Teuchi and Ayame. Fortunately, the Kami no Shinobi, Sarutobi Hiruzen, quickly used a low level water ninjutsu to put the flames out, much to the ramen store owner's relief. Meanwhile, Naruko's chakra slowly settled down and returned to the girl, swirling towards her newly grown tail and condensing into it.

Hiruzen dropped the barrier and moved quickly to Naruko to assist her. As the others made a motion to move forward, he held up a hand to stop them.

"Ughhh, what happened?" Naruko groaned, rubbing her face as she spoke. "Congratulations, on your third tail Naruko. Be careful, now. Remember what I've told you during our lessons about what would happen with each new tail," Hiruzen warned the kitsune girl gently. "Yeah, I remember," Naruko replied, getting to her feet shakily.

"Can someone please explain what is going on? S-she just grew another tail! A-and from what Mitarashi-san said, it sounded like this wouldn't be the last time this would happen! Is Naruko going to be okay?" Ayame asked, confused and upset. She didn't like the idea of the girl going through all that over and over.

Anko, Shikaku, and Chōza tensed at the question and looked at each other before they all looked at their Hokage. They all knew the answer, but they weren't sure how or if they should answer the question. Hiruzen sighed, seeing everyone look at him, and simply asked Naruko quietly, "Do you want them to know, Naruko?"

Naruko, startled at the question, looked at all her friends' faces before turning back to the Hokage and nodding resolutely, but slightly nervously. "I-I guess they deserve to know," she answered, hoping that no one hated her after learning the truth.

The Hokage smiled gently to her before helping her stand and turning to face the group. "Well, the truth is..."

 _A few minutes later_

Ayame, Teuchi, Chōji, Kiba, and Hinata stared at Naruko with wide eyes. Naruko, meanwhile, was attempting to hide her face behind one of her tails, scared of being rejected.

Shikamaru sighed and shook his head. "So, it is as I thought. It explains why you were out in the forest on your own, as well as why you were so resistant to being brought back to the village. The villagers must have done some troublesome things to you... Well, it can't be helped. You're my friend so I won't let them do those things so easily," he said to the nervous fox girl.

"Y-you don't hate me...?" Naruko asked in an uncharacteristically timid voice.

"O-of course not! I-it doesn't change a-anything a-at all!" Hinata said, rather vehemently compared to her usual demeanor.

"Hah, like I care if my favorite customer is the new Kyūbi! It just means that if any other kitsune ever visit Konohagakure that they'll definitely eat at Ichiraku, all thanks to you! Hahahahaha!" Teuchi laughed, thinking of ways that this could attract more business to his restraunt. "Otou-san..." Ayame said as she sweat-dropped at her father's last comment.

Chōji and Kiba both said, in perfect unison, "It doesn't change anything. You're still the same cool and cute girl as before!" At realizing that they both were interested in the kitsune girl and had tried to compliment her in the same way, they glared daggers at each other, determined not to lose.

Naruko laughed and waved her tails about behind her happily, relieved that they had accepted her, despite who she was. "Thanks everyone! I love you all!" She declared, beaming at them.

 _5_ _months later_

 **"Hell no, jiji** **, I'm not getting sealed** **. I don't want to be some prisoner,"** Naruko growled at the Hokage in a demonic voice, glaring at him with an expression of hurt and betrayal. They Hokage's eyes opened wide in shock. She knew about the jinchūriki? How?

"Although I have no idea how or when you found out about that, that is not my intention. It is just to limit your chakra access so you don't accidentally kill the other academy students. Your control still isn't good enough yet on that," Hiruzen explained quickly, trying to calm and reassure the furious girl. The girl calmed slightly at the explanation. Well, at least she didn't seem to feel like he was trying to betray her anymore. That was an expression he never wanted to see on her face again.

"The answer is still no. I don't want anyone putting weird seals on me," she growled, still angry, but fortunately no longer hostile. She did not feel like explaining about the Bijū mindscape to the Hokage with her current mood. Let him wonder all he wanted.

"What if I teach you fūinjutsu instead? I'm not as much of an expert as your mother was, or my student Jiraya for that matter, but I can at least teach you a simple chakra surpressing seal, storage scroll seals, and explosive tags. That way you can make your own supplies. Plus, you can apply the surpression seal yourself. As well as remove it yourself whenever you want to," The Sandaime asked, trying to compromise. The girl already had more chakra than the average jōnin, but with only a fraction of the control. It was seriously too dangerous to allow her to go to the academy otherwise. She always used far more chakra than was necessary. He had been forced to teach her the _Kage Bushin_ since the normal, academy clone jutsu was simply something she couldn't manage with how much her chakra overflowed.

"... Fine. As long as I am the one in control of what happens with my body. I'm **not** letting anyone else use seals on me, but me," the girl huffed, knowing that the old man was just trying to prevent any unfortunate accidents. She knew her control was bad and that she was likely to overdo it in the taijutsu spars if she had full access to her chakra. She still didn't like it, though. Whatever. She would just have to work on her chakra control until she didn't need it.

"Fortunately, your mother had some old Uzumaki clan scrolls on fūinjutsu. The seal on them will only break with a drop of Uzumaki blood, so I can't study them, but you can. I'll bring them by during our next lesson. As I told you before, the Uzumaki clan were famous for their fūinjutsu and kenjutsu. Especially with swords. The katana, ninjatō, and tantō specifically," Hiruzen lectured.

"Yeah, I remember. That's why you've been teaching me some kenjutsu as well, though it is the Konoha style and not the Uzu style..." Naruko hinted. She wanted to learn more of how her mother fought, as she had made clear to the Sandaime before. Hiruzen laughed at what she was suggesting. She had been doing so for a while, but he had been delaying her, wanting her to at least be proficient in the Konoha style. "Fine, I'll bring those too. I've been meaning to anyway, as it is good to learn more than one style. That way you can switch it up as needed. You've progressed pretty well in the Konoha style already," he promised, much to the excitement of the Uzumaki. She had been sad that not many of her mother's clan remained. In fact, she was the only one that the Hokage had been certain of existing, although he suspected a few more were out there, somewhere.

Naruko did indeed remember her history lessons, especially relating to her mother's clan. According to the Hokage, the Uzumaki had been the most powerful clan in Uzushiogakure no Sato, being so dominant that the title of Uzukage had never been held by someone not of Uzumaki blood, despite not having any rules about who was allowed to hold the position. Sadly, Uzushiogakure had been destroyed by the combined forces of Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure in a surprise attack at the start of the Third Shinobi War. The Uzumaki clan had nearly been destroyed, with the only survivors being those outside of the village during the attack, such as Uzumaki Kushina. Despite the forces of 3 ninja villages uniting to destroy one village, the losses of the allied Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri were staggering. This allowed Konoha and Suna to gain an advantage in the war, before a ceasefire was agreed upon.

"Really? Finally!" Naruko cheered, excited to expand her skills. The Hokage smiled at her, knowing how proud her mother would be of the kitsune child.

 _A month later_

Naruko finally had an opportunity to hang out with Hinata. She rarely got a chance to do so, as the girl's father, Hyūga Hiashi, was not only reluctant to allow his clan to be associated with Naruko, but he was determined to have Hinata improve her abilities, as she was not at a level befitting her status in the clan. Hiashi did not want to risk his clan's social status, rather than having anything against the fox girl herself.

Naruko normally spent her free time with Kiba, Chōji, and Shikamaru, but they were busy with their respective clans today. Plus, Naruko wanted to spend the day only with Hinata today, as she rarely saw her.

They walked around the village, looking in various shops. They tried on different clothes and browsed accessories, despite not having brought much money to spend. It was still fun to see what they looked like in different outfits, even if Hinata was rather shy about some of the outfits Naruko had suggested for her. It wasn't even particularly revealing; just a tank top and some shorts. The weather was warm, but Hinata still wore that heavy jacket. _'She really needs some self confidence,'_ Naruko thought.

Many of the villagers were shocked to see yet another clan heir associating so closely with the demon. _'The demon has to be doing something to manipulate them. There's no way Hinata-sama would willingly spend time with a monster. Nor would her father allow it,'_ one woman thought to herself. She had no idea what Naruko had done to manipulate the powerful clan, but she would have to ask her husband about it. Maybe he could think of something, as well as a solution.

Naruko, meanwhile, was pulling Hinata towards a flower shop nearby. "Come on Hinata, I want to see what they have!" Naruko said to Hinata excitedly. Hinata giggled at her friend's enthusiasm. Naruko seemed really excited today. It made Hinata happy to see the kitsune girl so happy. Hinata thought it was cute how fast Naruko's tails waved around when she was excited like this. "O-okay!" Hinata replied, allowing Naruko to pull her into the Yamanaka Flower Boutique.

"Welco-" Ino started to greet before she saw who it was. "AH! You're that prankster girl that Chōji and Shikamaru have been hanging out with!" Ino shouted, pointing accusingly at Naruko. "Yep, that's me! And Hinata is here too!" Naruko declared proudly. Ino stared at the two. These were the last two girls she expected in her mother's shop.

"I didn't expect Hinata-chan to hang out with someone who plays so many pranks," Ino said honestly, but without hostility. She thought that Hinata was too meek to do such things. "S-she h-helped me w-with some b-b-bullies a while b-back," Hinata explained, at which Ino nodded in understanding. That made sense. Why Naruko would come in here though worried her still.

Ino looked warily at Naruko before asking, "You aren't planning anything here right? I heard you painted d-d-dicks over all the Uchiha symbols in their clan district, as well as some o-other things." Ino and Hinata blushed over the mention of that particular part of male anatomy. Naruko, meanwhile, just laughed herself to tears at the memory.

 _Flashback_

 _Naruko, Kiba, Akamaru, Chōji, and Shikamaru were laying in the grass, staring up at the sky and having a picnic. They were having fun, chatting about the food they were eating and different shapes they saw in the clouds._

 _"Hey look, a fatty, a lazy bastard, a mutt, and the demon bitch!" A voice said, clearly meant to provoke them. Laughter at the comment could be heard._

 _Looking towards the voice, they saw a group of 6 boys wearing the Uchiha crest on their clothing. Chōji and Kiba moved as if to fight the boys at the insult. As much as Naruko wanted to hit the assholes herself, she grabbed and stopped the two._

 _"Wait," she said quietly to them, "I'll get them back in a different way." Upon seeing the scheming gleam in Naruko's eyes, the boys relaxed, knowing that she would come up with an even more satisfying revenge._

 _Flashback End_

"...and also took pictures of them with that big wet spot on the bed, with them all in it, and spread copies of the photos all throughout the Uchiha district!" Naruko finished explaining the details of her prank through her laughter. Hinata and Ino's faces were priceless. Eyes wide, half terrified and half trying to hold back laughter. Naruko's prank had been **far** more extensive than Ino had heard from Shikamaru. "Don't worry, I don't plan to prank you right now. And even if I did it wouldn't be that bad. It was because they deserved it, trying to start a fight like that," Naruko said to reassure Ino.

"Ooohkay, then. But still I'm surprised that you are here, Naruko-san. Hinata I can understand but I didn't think you were interested in these types of things, considering.." Ino said to Naruko.

"Hey, I can like 'girly' things too! Even though I think it is silly to say certain things are 'girly' and other things are 'boyish.' Let people like what they want to like, I say," Naruko declared, crossing her arms. Hinata looked at Naruko admiringly, thinking the kitsune girl was really cool for saying that. Ino replied, "Well, it's just because _more_ girls and _fewer_ boys tend to be interested in flowers, but I get what you mean."

Naruko nodded in understanding. "Well, when you put it that way I guess it makes sense. But enough about that, let's see what you have!" Ino clapped her hands together and said, "Well let's see, here we have a..."

 _Some time later..._

"Thanks again, Ino-chan!" Naruko had called cheerfully from the door, carrying a new potted jasmine. Ino waved at the girl as she and Hinata left. Naruko had wanted an indoor plant to liven up her apartment a little, as it was a bit too drab for the kitsune's taste. Ino hated to admit it, but she had to agree with Shikamaru. Naruko was a 'troublesome, but good-natured' girl. Ino was still a little scared of being pranked, but still hoped to see the fox girl again.

* * *

 **A** **/N:** **For those curious, although this may or may not appear in the actual chapters, I'll explain how a little about children with one demon and one human parent, as it will probably be a long time before it would be mentioned in the story. Hiruzen would have already explained this to Naruko by now (and he would have learned it from Kurama), which I may show in a flashback, or the topic may come up again when Naruko has decided who her partner is, as they would probably want to know.**

 **The first child of any demon / human union will always be full demon, to keep the demonic line intact and pure, especially for the ruling class like Naruko. They will inherit some traits from the human parent (like fūinjutsu and kenjutsu, as well as Naruko's red hair), but chakra levels, chakra type, healing factor, etc. will be full demon. Children of a human and demon that are not the firstborn will have equal chances to be full demon or full human, but both are low compared to the chances of a half-demon. Half-demons have chakra levels lower than full demons but higher than humans. Their chakra is also less corrosive than demonic chakra, but is still to some degree. They have a lower healing factor than full demons as well.**

 **Responses to Reviews:**

PinkiePieParty122894: **oW** **o** **I don't even know what to say to that, other than I hope I don't get too much of an ego from all the praise you give me. I'm just happy people seem to enjoy my writing.**

ThunderClaw03: **That... would be painful. Seeing as 2 tailed, 6 year old Naruko was already powerful enough to _accidentally_ put her arm through a civilian. Yeah, she'll definitely have to work on chakra control.**


	7. Academy Introduction

**A/N: Been a while since my last update. Sorry about that.**

 **Well, I got a new phone now. My old one was so broken. Power button not working and not holding a charge. Enjoying the upgrade so far.** **Also back from vacation, which was fun, but it's nice to be home too.**

 **I don't own Naruto. It'd be different than it is, and probably less popular.**

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

 _Ninja Academy_ _, November 1st, Naruko age 8_

Naruko was excited. She had finally applied the chakra suppression seal successfully, so the Hokage was finally allowing her to start attending the academy with her friends. She was on her way to her assigned classroom now.

 _Meanwhile_

Umino Iruka was not excited at all. In fact, he was worried about how he was going to deal with the new student. It was unusual for a student to join partway through the semester, but that wasn't his main concern. He remembered back to when Hokage-sama had first spoken to him about it.

 _Flashback, Hokage office_

 _The young chūnin walked nervously to the Hokage's office. He was new to his post as an Academy instructor, so he was worried that he was going to be reprimanded for his performance or something. It was surprisingly difficult to deal with so many kids, but he did his best. As he was thinking this, he reached the door to the Hokage's office and knocked on it, albeit hesitantly._

 _"Enter!" said the Sandaime Hokage._

 _"You requested me, Hokage-sama?" asked Iruka._

 _"Ah yes, Iruka-kun. I thought it best to discuss with you beforehand about the new student I will be assigning to your class in a few days," Sarutobi Hiruzen declared._

 _"A new student, sir? This late into the year? Will they be able to keep up?" Iruka asked, somewhat concerned that the student would have missed so much. However, the Hokage simply nodded before replying, "Oh yes, she will be able to keep up as I have been giving her instruction up until this point. However, I think it would be good for her to spend more time with her peers, rather than just me, therefore I am enrolling her now."_

 _Iruka nodded, knowing that if the Hokage had overseen this mystery girl's instruction up to this point, then she would not be behind at all. She would probably be ahead of the class, if anything. "May I ask as to why now, and not earlier in the year, Hokage-sama?" Iruka asked curiously._

 _Hiruzen sighed, knowing that this would be the difficult part of this conversation. "She has some... special circumstances. And these circumstances are why I needed to speak to you personally. You must not treat her unfairly, even though it may be difficult." Iruka was shocked, and a little bit upset that the Hokage thought he would do such a thing as being unfair towards a student. "What in the world would make you think I would do such a thing as that, Hokage-sama? I am always fair with my students," the instructor said, irritated._

 _"I know you are, under normal circumstances. I just want to forewarn you so that you continue to do so. What I am about to show you is usually classified to a higher rank than you hold, but it is necessary for you to know," the Hokage said, pushing a folder towards Iruka._

 _Iruka curiously picked up the folder and opened it. He instantly saw a picture of Naruko, and his expression turned serious. "THAT girl..? She's a Kitsune.." Iruka said as he read the document. His eyes widened and his face paled as he read through the document. "This is...! She's the daughter of the previous Kyūbi...!? She's the successor of that... of that...!" Iruka started to say angrily, unable to find the words. The previous Kyūbi had killed his parents on that fateful night when it attacked the village._

 _The Hokage held up his hand to stop Iruka from saying any more. "Kurama, the previous Kyūbi, was under the influence of a powerful genjutsu. I knew him well enough to know he would not have attacked the village normally. He was not the evil being that many believe," he told Iruka. "Even if it was not the Kyūbi's fault, it still killed my parents. I-it was so hard after I lost them," Iruka said, still upset._

 _"Which is why I think you will get along with Naruko... if you can look past who her father was. She's an orphan too, after all. She needs people who understand her, and I don't think any of the other instructors would even try to do that," Hiruzen said solemnly. Iruka nodded slowly, thinking that the Hokage was right about the other instructors. 'The last thing we need is to give the new Kyūbi any more reason to hate Konoha than she already has, based on what has happened to her, according to this file,' Iruka thought to himself, resolving to do his best to follow the Hokage's request, if only to prevent another tragedy like the Day of the Kyūbi._

 _Flashback end_

"Students, we have a new person joining our class today. Please treat her kindly," Iruka announced.

The class broke out into a loud chatter in their confusion. All except for Naruko's friends, as they had a pretty good guess as to who it was.

"A new student?"

"This late into the year? Won't she be behind?"

"QUIET!" Iruka yelled as his head seemed to grow to a massive size, as he attempted to bring the class to order. The class fell silent, surprised by the loud shout from their normally kind and patient teacher. _'I'll have to remember that. It seemed to work,'_ Iruka thought

At that moment, Naruko dramatically flung the door open and pranced into the room, completely ignoring that she was supposed to knock first and allow the instructor to introduce her. The Sandaime had told her this several times, but she was too excited to think about such things at the moment.

"Uzumaki Naruko has arrived!" the kitsune princess announced dramatically, turning to point at her new classmates. Her tails were waving around excitedly and she smiled brightly as she raised a hand in greetings.

After a moment of shock, Shikamaru face-palmed and muttered, "and there she goes, doing more troublesome things." Chōji smiled at seeing Naruko as he munched on his chips. Kiba yelled back, "Hey, Naruko! About time you joined the Academy!" as Akamaru barked in agreement. Hinata giggled quietly to herself, amused by Naruko's enthusiasm and dramatic entry. Ino sweat-dropped and thought to herself, _'She doesn't do things halfway, huh?'_

But those were the only positive reactions. Uchiha Sasuke and Aburame Shino looked at her curiously, but neutrally. Most of the other students, however, reacted negatively.

Haruno Sakura's eye simply twitched in annoyance, seeing that Sasuke was curious about her. _'No! She's taking away Sasuke's attention, damn it! Shannaro!'_ raged inner Sakura.

"It's that demon girl! She killed my cousin, Kenchi! Keep her away from me! MURDERER, MURDERER!" screamed one of the civilian-born female students by the name of Airi, as she stood and pointed dramatically at Naruko. Airi's friends screamed and huddled together defensively, even going so far as to draw their kunai. Several random male students cringed away from Naruko, looking warily at the demoness.

When she saw this reaction, Naruko's face froze. Her tails drooped and her eyes got sad, but only for a moment. She forced a fake smile on her face, doing her best to pretend to be happy. She tried her best to follow Anko-nee's words of not letting them get to her, but it was really hard not to be discouraged. She was really hoping she would be accepted here, but it looked like most people still hated her.

Iruka saw through her facade, though. Her eyes showed a deep hurt and she was trembling slightly, even despite the smile on her face. Well, he would just have to snap her out of it before she had a meltdown.

"Baka! You're supposed to knock before you barge in! I know Hokage-sama told you that!" Iruka told the girl in an exasperated voice as he gently smacked the back of her head.

Naruko smiled sheepishly at Iruka and said, "Sorry sensei, I got a little excited so I forgot." Iruka just shook his head and smiled at her, "I noticed. Well today the only free seat is next to Uchiha Sasuke, but we don't have assigned seating. If you want to sit somewhere in particular, make sure to get here promptly every day, got it? Oh, and before I forget, I'm Umino Iruka, but you can just call me Iruka-sensei." Iruka pointed out Sasuke to Naruko as he spoke to her.

"R-right! Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruko said as she hurried off to her seat, much to the displeasure of all the girls in class except Hinata, who was just sad that she wasn't the one sitting beside Naruko.

 _'Damn it, and now she's sitting next to him! I'll get her for this! Shannaro!'_ Inner Sakura yelled in fury.

 _'This might be even more difficult than I thought it would be...'_ Iruka thought to himself as he began his lecture.

* * *

 **A/N** : **Only a short update, but I've kept you all waiting long enough. Plus I felt this was a good ending point.**

 **For those who haven't guessed, this story is going to be a bit darker at points than the original. The whole "try to forgive everyone for world peace" thing won't happen, because some actions can't be forgiven. Understood, yes, but not forgiven. To my eyes, the world exists in shades of grey, not black and white. This won't be a good versus evil story (because things are never that simple), but rather people versus people, and the struggle to realize who you are.**

 **Also, finally to academy age! This is when I need to really start making some decisions that will have big impacts on the direction this story will take.**

 **Responses to Reviews:**

PinkiePieParty122894: **Now I'm curious to read your writing sometime. :P**

Shinigami-No-Kaze: **I thought so, but I second guessed myself. Damn twins with similar names are a pain. It is now fixed. Thanks for pointing that out for me; I really do want to make as few mistakes in my writing as possible.**

Abondoned Acc: **To be fair, it is hard to be creative nowadays because so many ideas are already done. I'm glad you're liking it so far, though. Much love for your support.**

ThunderClaw03: **I'll do my best, but my plot bunnies love to run way ahead of the actual story. Just today I was imagining what would happen at the Five Kage Summit! That's so far away that it isn't even funny. Hopefully my brain will focus back on where the story actually is right now. XD**

Otaku of Anime: **I've 3 main ideas for possible team combos. 1) Keep the originals. Kind of boring, also I think somewhat unlikely. I'd have to add something of a twist of a reason why if I did this. Sakura and Naruko are going to be pretty hostile with what I have currently planned (at least for a while), and the Hokage would know this. 2) Swap Naruko and Kiba. They have similar sensory specialities, smell and sound. Also, Naruko would work better with Hinata than Sakura, methinks. Kurenai, being good at genjutsu, would also probably be very good at chakra control and help Naruko massively in said area. 3) Put Naruko in Ino's slot, put Ino in Kiba's slot, and put Kiba in Naruko's slot. Naruko already gets along with Shikamaru and Choji. Kiba would be sensor for team 7. Ino onto Hinata and Shino's team because they're probably better at lockdown than team 7, allowing her to use her mind transfer jutsu. Plus it would be an awful idea to have Sakura, Ino, and Sasuke on the same team. Nothing would get done. Most leaning towards option 2, though I have to really consider how much that will change the story from just using original teams. All in all, I haven't decided yet, though I need to soon-ish.**

night-fang223: **Thanks for your kind words. 3 I'll do my best to write the best story that I can.**

DschingisKhan: **That is true, but it is a sad truth Naruko will have to face if she chooses a human mate. Which, I guess, isn't a guarantee. It is likely though that her mate as she grows up around humans. But the lifespan difference is definitely something she will have to face... but not yet. Naruko's seeming maturity is partly intentional and partly not. I'll admit, I don't feel that I'm good at writing children. But Naruko isn't intended to have the frame of mind of a normal child. She's a fox demon that survived on her own in the forest for over a year. Far different than growing up with parents who look after all your needs.**


	8. Training at the Academy

**A/N:** **Hello. Back with an update.** **Finally. Getting out of the habit of writing sort of put me behind. Had to go back and read my own story to remember it, haha. I feel like I should just write out multiple versions of the story and then post whichever one I like best, but... wow would that be a lot more time consuming than it already is.**

 **I don't own Naruto. Nor do I have fox ears and a fox tail. It would be cool if I did, though.**

 **Chapter 8**

* * *

 _At the Ninja Academy, different day_

"Alright class, we're scheduled to do some training outside today," Iruka announced.

A lot of groans and protests were heard from several of the female students, as well as a few of the civilian-born male students. It was raining outside. Not very hard, but enough that they would be soaked and cold by the time the outdoor training was over.

"Noooo! That'll ruin my hair! It'll be all frizzy!" one girl complained loudly.

Naruko, who had managed to get a seat next to Hinata and Aburame Shino today, just sighed and rolled her eyes. Shino said, in his usual peculiar fashion, "It is foolish to complain. Why? Because we are training to be ninja. We need to be prepared to do missions in any weather. The academy will not change their decision for vain reasons like hair styles."

"Yeah. I understand how it's annoying to have wet clothes and hair, but it is something we should be prepared for," Naruko replied. "Plus I'm more excited to see how good everyone is and finally move around. I was getting tired of sitting still every day in class..." she added.

"I j-just hope w-we don't h-have t-to spar..." Hinata said worriedly. She had a lot of bad memories of sparring. She never enjoyed when her father made her fight her younger sister, Hanabi. Hinata could never bring herself to truly strike at Hanabi.

"Aw, come on Hinata, I like sparring. I'm sure you'll do fine!" Naruko said as they went outside, trying to encourage the Hyūga girl.

"Okay, class. We are doing taijutsu sparring sessions today. If it isn't your turn, then either watch from the sides or practice your shuriken and kunai throwing on the other side of the field. After the spars are done, I will see how all of you do with the throwing," Iruka declared, much to Naruko's delight and Hinata's despair.

"Alright, first match is Hinata versus Airi," announced Iruka.

"Oh, eww. I have to fight the lesbian with a crush on the monster fox," Airi sneered. "I don't know why you like that thing. That freak deserves to die already."

Upon hearing this, Naruko dropped her gaze to stare at the ground, her ears and tails drooping in sadness. She tried her best to remember what Anko always told her about not letting such comments get to her, but it was hard when she heard them so often and from so many people. _'I guess, to them, I am a freak...'_

"D-don't talk about Naruko-chan like th-that!" Hinata responded angrily, face red from a mixture of anger and embarrassment. It was true that she had a crush on Naruko, but nobody was supposed to know about that! More importantly, Hinata didn't like seeing Naruko get depressed when people spoke badly about the kitsune girl. Hinata knew how that felt personally. Hinata resolved that she would do her best to prevent Naruko from having to deal with that whenever she could.

"Yeah, yeah. Why don't you stop me then!" Airi challenged tauntingly.

Iruka, seeing that the two were going to start fighting whether he called the match to begin or not, quickly said "Begin!" and moved out of the way. Before Airi even had a chance to react, she was on the ground with the angry Hyūga heiress glaring down at her, having suffered a painful strike to the chest. Airi stared up in shock at the normally quiet and docile Hyūga. Iruka quickly called the match in Hinata's favor, seeing the still hostile expression on Hinata's face when she looked at Airi. With a small huff, Hinata turned around and marched straight back to Naruko.

"Y-you w-were right, Naruko-chan. I-I kinda e-enjoyed that p-p-particular spar," Hinata said, blushing. Naruko surely knew how she felt now. How embarassing.

Naruko, however, was still oblivious. She had focused much more on the second half of what Airi had said than the first half. The kitsune girl put a halfhearted smile on her face and said, "Yeah, I knew you could do it, Hinata-chan."

Shino put a hand on Naruko's shoulder reassuringly. "Don't let what Airi-san said bother you, Naruko-san. Why? Because you have a good friend in Hinata-san. Plus, you do not seem like a bad person to me."

At this, Naruko finally relaxed a bit back to her normal self. "Thanks, both of you," Naruko said sincerely, giving them both a genuine smile this time, much to Hinata's relief.

Several unremarkable fights soon followed. Chōji and Shikamaru both defeated their civilian-born opponent, as did Ino and Sakura.

Kiba defeated Shino, as taijutsu was a specialty of the Inuzuka clan and a weakpoint for the Aburame clan, despite Shino's best efforts. It wasn't really close, but Shino was able to defend for longer than any of the others who had been defeated.

"Alright, I suppose that leaves Uchiha Sasuke versus Uzumaki Naruko," said Iruka, to much excitement from the class.

"Go Sasuke!" cheered Sakura enthusiastically. Many similar cheers were heard from the female students.

"You got this, Naruko-chan!" cheered Kiba and Chōji loudly.

"Why even bother to cheer for her, a girl has no chance against Sasuke. He's the top of our class." A random civilian-born boy said to them. Shikamaru just sighed at how troublesome this all was. _'I wouldn't be too sure if I were_ _you_ ,' he thought to himself.

Naruko waved her tails around excitedly behind her, ready for a good fight. Sasuke, meanwhile, stood haughtily across from her, certain in his victory.

"Begin!" announced Iruka as he jumped to the side.

Sasuke quickly charged Naruko and delivered a swift and strong punch to her face, knocking her on her back. Confident he had won, he hopped backwards with a confident "hmph."

But to Sasuke surprise, and the shock of many of the spectators, Naruko sat up laughing gleefully before standing up. Her lip was a bit bloody, but she seemed otherwise fine.

"Hehehe, you're pretty good. This will be fun," she told Sasuke. The young Uchiha smirked in response _. 'Interesting. She got up from that. She may be worth my time after all_ , _'_ Sasuke thought before dropping into his fighting stance again.

Turning to the instructor, Naruko asked, "Hey Iruka-sensei, since he's pretty good can I let loose just a little bit? Pretty please?" She gave him her best, cutest expression that she could manage. Iruka nodded hesitantly, "I guess, just a little bit, and only because Sasuke is so skilled."

"Yaaay!" the kitsune girl cheered excitedly as she adjusted her shirt to expose the front of her left shoulder. On it was a spiral shaped seal with the number 1 inside the center. She quickly bit her thumb to draw blood and drew a 2 over the top of the 1 with her blood. The 1 faded away and the 2 seemed to become a part of the seal in its place. Meanwhile a faint red glow of chakra surrounded her entire body, much to Sasuke's interest, and the shock of most of the students. Even more surprising was the brighter red orb that started at her feet and quickly swirled around her, working its way up to her head, leaving her chakra glowing more brightly than it had been before. After a moment, it faded away, leaving her looking the same as before, but everyone could tell a difference. The air around them felt heavier and warmer, somehow. Naruko just stood there staring at Sasuke, swishing her tails side to side excitedly. "Now we can play for real!"

Sasuke smirked in response. "Interesting. You put some type of seal on yourself for training. Maybe you'll actually give me a workout."

Sakura was infuriated by this exchange. _'Shannaro! I won't lose to her! So Sasuke is interested in strong girls? I refuse to lose him to her!'_ raged inner-Saukra.

"What the hell was that?" asked one of the civilian-born students. "Like a little light show is going to let her win against Sasuke-kun!" shouted another girl. Shikamaru face-palmed at their stupidity. "Troublesome," he muttered.

Naruko smiled cheerfully before charging Sasuke and punching at his stomach so quickly that he barely managed to block it in time. Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise at her speed before narrowing in concentration. He dropped low to try and sweep her legs, but Naruko casually hopped over the sweep and kicked at his face. Sasuke grabbed her foot and tossed her away, but she just did a handspring back onto her feet, landing almost silently.

Sasuke got up and charged her, aiming a punch at her chest but only grazing her shoulder as she spun out of the way. As she spun, she let the tip of her tail smack hard into his back, making him stumble forward and faceplant into the ground.

"Uff," groaned Sasuke as he stood back up, charging at her and kicking her in the stomach, catching her off-guard at the speed of his recovery. Naruko grunted in pain and stumbled back a few feet, but managed to keep on her feet and block his follow up punch just in time.

They both punched at each other's face at the same time. Naruko chose to dodge, while Sasuke caught her punch with his free hand. Naruko replied by headbutting him, making them both stumble backwards from the force of the impact.

"If you think I'm going to let you win, you are sorely mistaken," Sasuke told Naruko, frustrated that he was unable to get the upper hand against the vixen.

Naruko stuck her tongue out at him and pulled down an eyelid, "Like I need you to let me win, teme. I'll do it all on my own whether you want me to or not." With that said, she turned her back to him, spreading her tails and bracing herself for his inevitable charge, listening closely for him to move. She would annoy him and bait him in like this, so that he wouldn't be prepared for her counter.

Sasuke's eye twitched in annoyance at what he saw as a disrespectful gesture. "Dobe! Turn around and face me! What kind of fool turns their back on their opponent!?"

Naruko let out a yawn and stretched her arms above her head tauntingly, refusing to reply with words. In anger, Sasuke charged at her, preparing to punch the back of her head. Quick as a flash, Naruko dodged out of the way and slapped him hard in the face with one tail, breaking his nose with a loud crack. The other two tails connected with his torso, bruising him and knocking him to the ground. With that, she sat down on his chest quickly, pinning him down.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruko!" Iruka declared. "Sakura, go fetch the med-nin in the nurse's office to patch Sasuke up," ordered Iruka. Sakura, who was in shock at witnessing Sasuke's defeat, ran off to do so.

Naruko stood up off of Sasuke and offered him a hand up. "That was a good match, lots of fun," Naruko told him. He begrudgingly accepted her hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet. "Hmph," Sasuke said, somewhat sulkily, storming off without saying anything else to get patched up.

"Whoa! She beat Sasuke? What the hell?! He was always easily the top of the class at practical lessons!" One boy shouted in shock.

Meanwhile, Naruko walked over to Iruka. She had a question in mind. "Umm, sensei? Do you think I need to put my seal back to how it was, or is it okay to stay like this? I know why I need it but I still don't want to seal away more than I have to... I hate how it makes my body feel so slow and heavy..." Naruko asked quietly so that her classmates couldn't overhear. Iruka sighed and replied, "I don't think it's a good idea for you to spar anyone other than maybe Sasuke as you are now, but I think it's fine for everything except sparring. I'll try not to put you against any of the lower-ranked students until your control is better. If you do have to spar against a less skilled opponent, I expect you to apply the seal back fully. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. Thanks Iruka-sensei!" Naruko replied happily and ran off to join Hinata.

"W-wow y-you're so strong N-naruko-chan," Hinata praised the happy redhead. Naruko gave her a silly smile with her tails waving around excitedly in reply. "Yeah! I'm awesome like that!" Naruko declared, a little boastfully.

"Hmph, you sure are full of yourself, aren't you bitch?" asked Airi angrily from a safe distance and surrounded by her friends.

"What, do you want me to lie, Airi-baka? Sorry but that's not in my nature. I tell it like it is," Naruko replied bluntly. Naruko then realized what she had been called. "Oh, and I'm not a dog, I'm a kitsune. I'm not a bitch. The correct term is vixen. Vixen!" Naruko said adamantly, waving her arms around a bit wildly when she said vixen, trying to put as much emphasis on the word as possible.

"Like we care, monster bitch!" one of Airi's posse yelled angrily in reply.

"GAHH! I just told you! That's the wrong term!" Naruko replied, pulling on her hair in frustration. Shino put his hand on Naruko's shoulder. "You should ignore them. Why? Because they are saying that on purpose to upset you," The bug-loving boy told the frustrated girl.

Naruko sighed and tried to calm herself down. She knew the boy was right, but she really wanted to be called by the correct term, damn it!

 _A short time later_

"Alright, now that we're all back, line up for shuriken training. Show me what you can do when your name is called," Iruka instructed the class. Sasuke had finally returned, having been healed by the med-nin from the beating he received at the hands of Naruko.

Lined up in front of the class were straw dummies with wooden bulls-eye targets attached to them. The academy students took turns throwing a mix of kunai and shuriken at the dummies; five of each. Sasuke went first and hit all of his shuriken and kunai directly on the bullseye of a target, while throwing them all at once. "Hmph," Sasuke said smugly, satisfied with his performance, much to the delight of his female classmates.

"Sasuke is the coolest!" declared Sakura, as she fangirled, as usual.

Hinata did well too, hitting half the targets on the bulls-eye, and the other half on the innermost ring. Ino and Sakura, however, did somewhat worse, hitting all the targets but in pretty much random spots. Chōji and Shino did only a little better than Sakura and Ino, just getting slightly closer to the center.

Airi whiffed half the targets and only barely hit the ones she did hit, much to her embarrassment.

Kiba and Shikamaru did almost as well as Hinata, by hitting the targets mostly on the innermost ring with one bulls-eye each.

Finally, it was Naruko's turn. She lined up, took careful aim... and threw her shuriken and kunai... **_through_** all of the targets, breaking them to pieces. Her projectiles sailed through the straw dummies and finally came to a stop when they hit the wall behind the targets, burying themselves into the stone wall with a loud _clang_.

Everyone stared, wide-eyed, at Naruko, as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Ehehe, I guess I threw them just a little bit harder than I meant to...?" Naruko explained nervously.

"... A little bit, she says..." muttered Kiba, awe-struck by the embarrassed kitsune.

"I thought throwing them at a fourth of my strength would be okay!" she yelled back at Kiba, blushing brightly from embarrassment at her error. At this comment, everyone face-faulted and thought something along the lines of _'Only a fourth? Is she serious?!'_

Iruka cleared his throat to try and dispel the awkward moment. "Well Naruko, it looks like you're about as accurate as Hinata, at any rate. Half of them passed through the bulls-eye, and the other half went through the innermost ring. Just... try not to destroy the equipment next time, okay?" he said as he rubbed his face, feeling suddenly tired.

"Yes sir, Iruka-sensei," Naruko answered, still a bit embarrassed, but happy with her accuracy.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Sakura isn't going to be as hostile with Naruko as I first thought. I was originally going to have her take the role my minor OC, Airi, took last chapter of having a cousin involved in the alleyway incident and being Naruko's first kill. But I switched at the last second, so Sakura will feel more rivalry than hate now. That makes the original team 7 more viable than my previous plans would have allowed. My thoughts on pairings haven't changed, though.** **This chapter, and maybe one or two more, also serves as a bit of a test how Naruko would fit in with various teams for me.**

 **Also, I feel like I could have made this chapter longer, but my ideas were running dry and I didn't want to force it too much. Plus I wanted to update sooner rather than later.**

 **Responses to reviews:**

Thunderclaw03: **Oh believe me, foxes and/or kitsune will show up in this story. I've yet to work out full details, but it will play a part.**

PinkiePieParty122894: **Yeah, Naruko has it rough, sadly. Blame the fanfic's author! Lynch him for bullying the cute kitsune girl! Oh wait... shit. ;-;**

Otaku of Anime: **Iruka probably won't be as central, but he has his part to play in helping Naruko. My version of Anko fills the role Iruka did in the original series, at least a little bit. More will be revealed in time. :P**


	9. Girl Talk

**A/N: I'm back. Finally.** **I know I probably should write more. Just need about 1000 shadow clones of myself to do everything I need to and want to do in life. Sucks that I can't do that.**

 **Anyway, onto the usual disclaimer stuff. I don't own Naruto. Please support the official series. And please imagine me saying something witty, funny, or silly here.**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

 _In Kunoichi lessons, spring semester_

Naruko tried her best to stifle a yawn. The sun was particularly warm today, this early in spring. Very relaxing with the breeze and scent of nearby wildflowers. Their kunoichi arts sensei, had assigned them to do flower arrangements today. She lay down in the grass and closed her eyes, just about to doze off, when...

"And here I thought you liked flowers, Naruko. So bored that you're falling asleep?" Ino said teasingly from nearby. Naruko cracked open one eye and looked at Ino, who had decided to sit next to her, apparently.

"I do... but... the weather is so relaxing that it makes me sleepy..." Naruko responded, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Ino laughed. "It really is nice. I guess that explains why I found you over here snoring through class," Ino answered teasingly. Naruko blushed slightly in embarrassment and exclaimed, "No! No way! I don't snore!" as she slightly glared at Ino for accusing her of doing such a thing.

Ino laughed and said, "Do too. Don't worry, it isn't loud. I didn't notice until I sat down next to you. It was actually kind of cute." Naruko tilted her head slightly in confusion. "I don't really get it. But okay, I guess," Naruko admitted, calming down a little now that she knew her snoring had at least been quiet.

"Anyway, I thought you would be working with Sakura on this," Naruko said idly to Ino as she sat up and started looking at the flowers around her. The kitsune girl wanted to finish the assignment quickly so that she could maybe sneak in a nap in this nice setting before their next class.

Ino huffed, irritated at the topic change. "No. She's being ridiculous," Ino declared.

"Are you two fighting about Sasuke again?" Naruko rolled her eyes. She knew Ino and Sakura were close friends, but their friendship had been strained ever since they both decided that they liked Sasuke.

"No! ...Well actually, yes. But not in that way. I've pretty much given up on my chances with him, even if he is really cute. But I don't know if I want to be her friend anymore if she's going to be so stubborn." Ino tried to explain. This got Naruko's attention.

"What? You're going to let your friendship end just like that?" Naruko asked sharply, staring at Ino seriously and a little angrily at the thought. Ino, a little worried at Naruko's reaction, quickly said, "No, no, it's not like I want to, but if all we do is argue I don't know what else to do!"

Naruko sighed and stood up. "Okay, that's it. We're working out the problems between you two. Now." With that, she grabbed Ino's arm and started walking towards Sakura.

"W-wait! Naruko! Slow down!" Ino complained as she was dragged to her feet and forced to walk behind Naruko towards Sakura. "Nope," Naruko replied stubbornly.

Sakura, seeing the pair approach her, huffed angrily. "What are you doing bringing _her_ into our argument, Ino?" Sakura spat venomously, glaring at Naruko. Seeing this, Naruko's steps faltered somewhat and she averted her gaze downwards. More hateful glares. Directed at her. It really hurt so much.

Ino, upon seeing this, now was the one dragging Naruko forward, marching angrily towards Sakura. "That was uncalled for, Sakura. Naruko wanted us to resolve our issues, nothing more. She didn't do anything to you to deserve that."

"Yeah? And why would she care other than to side with you?" Sakura asked angrily. "Well?" Sakura asked as she turned to face Naruko, glaring at her while waiting for an answer.

"... Because friends are too important to lose so easily..." Naruko replied in a strangely quiet and morose tone for the kitsune girl. She was usually so energetic, that it caught Sakura off guard and peaked her curiosity as to why Naruko was behaving this way.

"...Naruko..? What is it..? What's wrong?" Ino asked, concerned.

"... I guess no one ever told you much about my past, huh..?" Naruko asked quietly, half to Ino and Sakura, and half to herself. "N-no, not really," Ino admitted, surprised by the question. "I guess I'm kind of interested to know..." Sakura said, reluctant to admit how interested she actually was.

Naruko sighed. She didn't really want to get into her personal problems right now with these two, but maybe it would help them settle their differences if they would just understand a little bit.

"I guess it starts with who my father is... or I guess was, since I'm an orphan," Naruko said in her strangely subdued voice. Sakura and Ino felt a chill run up their spines. They each thought to themselves that they were probably in for a not-so-happy story.

"W-well, who was he?" asked Sakura nervously. "Oh, he's very famous, but very misunderstood and hated in the village. Most people don't know that he was forced by a genjutsu to attack the village on the night I was born, you see. He's why I have these." Naruko explained, motioning to her ears and tails.

Although Ino was still confused, Sakura paled, having figured out who Naruko meant. "The Kyūbi," she breathed quietly under her breath, so that only Ino and Naruko would hear her. Ino, upon hearing this, paled. This was a lot of information to take in for the two girls. As kunoichi in training, they understood the manipulative ability of genjutsu. But they realized quickly just how badly normal villagers would react to Naruko if they knew who her father was.

"Of course, because of these, I'm not very well liked in Konoha... bad memories and stereotypes," Naruko continued. She had seemed to have snapped a bit out of her depressed mood and was reciting her past as if she were reading from a textbook. That made it all the worse for Ino and Sakura when they heard what Naruko had to say next.

"Which, I suppose, explains why the only person who was nice to me in the orphanage was murdered, and I was abducted and dumped deep in the forest, bound up in an old sack with ropes, when I was five years old. Of course, not before I was kicked repeatedly," Naruko said flatly, much to the horror of the other two. "That's..." Ino started to say something, but Naruko continued with a distant expression, lost in her memories.

"Of course, after I managed to get out, I didn't really know how to survive well on my own. A lone kit, without parents to teach her how to survive? I wasn't very good at finding food and water at first. Even though I got a bit better, it was still very hard. I was too afraid to go near the village unless I was close to starving to death, you see. I would honestly do much better now if I were in that situation, though. Hokage-jiji made sure to teach me those things before I joined the academy..."

"But back to what I was saying before..." Naruko continued. Ino and Sakura listened in shock to Naruko relay her perspective of her first meeting with Hinata. How important that single apple had been to Naruko. How it had been a couple days worth of food to her. Then her later encounter with Chōji and Shikamaru. Her fear of the village being slightly alleviated by the kindness shown to her, and that wonderful feast of ramen she had desperately needed. Finally, to the relief of the other two girls, she seemed to be done with her story. They both moved in to hug Naruko, tears running down their faces.

"That... I can't even imagine..." Sakura started to say.

"... But being alone and unwanted. The pain of feeling like you should just die because everyone around you would be happier if you did... That's what I'm most thankful that my friends save me from. Every day." Naruko added, her eyes closed, trembling from remembering all the harsh words and glares she received from those who hate her.

Sakura and Ino stood speechless, not really knowing what to say. It was clear to both of them that the usually cheerful kitsune had been through much more than she let on. And probably was still going through some of it.

"So... what were you two upset about anyway?" asked Naruko casually, as if she hadn't just been talking about such a distressing topic.

"You can't seriously expect me to care about that right now!" Ino said, shocked. "Yeah, after hearing about all that..." added Sakura.

Naruko crossed her arms and waited, flicking her tails back and forth with an impatient expression. "Yes, I can," Naruko declared stubbornly.

Ino gulped nervously, "Well... I said that continuing chasing after Sasuke would just be a waste of my time because... well.. you're the only girl he even pays attention to."

"...Eh?" Naruko responded, a bit confused.

"How could you call Sasuke a waste of time! He's so cool and handsome and..." complained Sakura.

"Because he isn't interested in me! And probably never will be! I might as well just focus on becoming a good kunoichi until I find a good guy that does like me!" Ino replied, frustrated.

"So he's a waste of time because he doesn't fawn over you like other guys do? Don't make me laugh!" Sakura argued.

"Uhh... you mean for yourself, right Ino? Not in general?" asked Naruko, confused.

"Yes! I'd be wasting my time pursuing someone who doesn't like me when there's a chance I'll find another good guy who does like me!" Ino said in a half shout.

"Wait, that's what you meant?" Sakura asked, confused. "I thought you meant in general."

"Of course not! He's already an awesome ninja. And... I'm sure if Naruko wanted him she could easily get him..." Ino said, slightly begrudgingly on the last part.

"...Eh? I'm not interested in that type of thing, really," said Naruko plainly.

"...What?" asked Sakura and Ino, dumbfounded. Pretty much every girl their age was starting to think about these kinds of things. At least a little bit.

"Shannaro! Now I just need to figure out what it is about Naruko that interests Sasuke and it'll be a flawless victory!" Sakura cheered happily. "Maybe he has a thing for redheads? Or maybe he likes her fox features?" Ino suggested.

"... Well it's kind of hard for him to ignore me when I beat the crap out of him every time we spar. I guess," Naruko suggested, thinking that was the most likely answer.

"That's it!" Sakura exclaimed. "He has never paid any attention to any other girl before, and barely any attention to any of the guys. But he focuses so much on Naruko because she's the only person our age that can beat him! Naruko, please teach me how to fight like you!" Sakura begged.

"Not so fast, Sakura! If she's teaching anyone it's going to be me! I want to be a serious kunoichi, not just get strong to impress a guy!" Ino declared.

"...EHH?!" Naruko exclaimed, confused by this turn of events.

"Oh yeah? Well I'm doing it for both reasons, so that means she definitely is teaching me instead!" Sakura countered.

"Oh no you don't! I'm not letting you get ahead of me! I was her friend before you so I get first dibs on being taught by her!" Ino declared.

Naruko, meanwhile, just stood there confused, wondering if this was better or worse than having them argue over Sasuke.

* * *

 **A/N:** **Guess I decided for this chapter to be the friendship drama chapter.**

 **Well** **, I think my main problem with writing is not coming up with too few ideas, but coming up with too many conflicting ideas and being indecisive about which I like better. Any advice on how to deal with that from fellow writers?** **Because I really, really need to finalize the teams. As much as I enjoy writing academy stuff, I don't want it to go on forever. Yikes.**

 **Responses to reviews:**

PinkiePieParty122894: **True enough. That's very important to her.**

ThunderClaw03: **Well... not quite anyone. Not yet, anyway. But for the average or mundane person, yes. But there ARE exceptional ninja out there.**

Otaku of Anime: **Eh, It's hard to give you an exact estimate, because strength at various ranks vary greatly. I will say that I think Rock Lee at the start of the chunin exams, with his weights on, would surely force her to use her full strength right now (and that they both rely on taijutsu for the moment). Though I'm not sure who would win that. Remember, she's still just an academy student, so that's pretty drastically powerful. She would lose against Lee either taking his weights off or opening his Chakra Gates, though.**

fanficreader71: **I'm glad you enjoyed. Hopefully you enjoy this one too.**

night-fang223: **Eh? Who is? The writer is confused. ;-;**


	10. Graduating from the Academy

**A/N: Hello everyone. Sorry for the delay. Start of the year has not been the best for me** , **to say the least. Between real life responsibilities, feeling unsatisfied with my own writing, and being a bit depressed... Well, I've just failed to make an update. However, I still want to continue with this story. Regardless, I'm back with an update finally, and am going to try and not make you all wait so long again. Thank you for your continued support and positive reviews; I really appreciate knowing that people enjoy this.  
**

 **I don't own Naruto, regardless of how much I wish I did. Please support the official series.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

 _Several years later, Ninja Academy, day before final exam  
_

Naruko was excited that their graduation exams were so close. She had shown up to class before anyone else had, and was practically bouncing in her seat as she watched her fellow classmates enter the room and take various seats. The only two left to show up were Sasuke and Iruka-sensei.

She had grown a fair bit over the last few years. To be fair, all of her classmates had. Now, she was just a little shorter than Sakura, but still taller than Hinata. Her chest had started developing as well, not as much as Hinata's, but because Hinata always wore her bulky jacket, Naruko's development was more obvious to the casual observer. She was definitely beating Ino and Sakura in that department as things stood. She had kept her outfit mostly similar to the one she had gotten when shopping with Anko several years ago. She loved that look, having just bought a few different versions for different seasons and weathers, as well as having to get a size that fit her now that she's grown out of that first outfit. Well, it only made sense that she outgrew it; she was 13 years old now, after all.

As Naruko was pondering this, Sasuke walked into the classroom, as depressed as he ever was these days. She sighed internally seeing this, worry for her friend filling her mind. He had been like this since his entire clan had been massacred two years ago, and while she wasn't surprised that he was so depressed and reserved these days, she knew that it wasn't good for him to never feel happiness, ever. It seemed like Sasuke was only ever angry or sad, no matter what the situation was. Sure, she had her own problems as well, often feeling sad or angry at the discrimination she _**still**_ received at the hands of most of the village, but she enjoyed the company of the majority of her classmates and some of their families. Iruka-sensei had even occasionally treated her to Ichiraku ramen on some particularly rough days for her.

Looking around the classroom, she saw that all the seats were taken besides the one between her and the window. Sasuke walked up to her, where she was leaning back in her seat casually, making it difficult for him to get past her. He glared at her, annoyed that she didn't show any indication of moving so that he could get by and sit down. "Stop being annoying and move," complained Sasuke.

Naruko smirked in an intentionally irritating way and just stared at him. "I don't wanna," she retorted, clearly trying to provoke him.

However, in the meantime, one of their male classmates was having an animated discussion with another guy at his table nearby. "No way! You really did that?" He said loudly, standing up in surprise at what he had just been told. Unknowingly, he had bumped into Sasuke, causing the Uchiha boy to stumble and fall right into Naruko.

Both Sasuke and Naruko's eyes widened in shock as their lips brushed when Sasuke landed on top of her. It only lasted for a second before Sasuke pushed himself away from her, but it had been long enough for the class to turn and see the position the two had been in. Sasuke looked at Naruko to apologize, but suddenly felt dread as her shocked eyes slowly gained a mischievous glint.

Naruko said loudly, "Oh my, Sasuke. I know I'm attractive but that doesn't mean it's okay for you to steal my first kiss like that. I really want someone to ask me out before they just jump me like that. I can't believe you'd do this to me!" She covered her face with her hands and faked a sob, but he could see the mischievous amusement in her eyes as she peaked out from between her fingers.

Sasuke only had time to think, _'Damn her and her pranks!'_ before their classmates reacted to Naruko's little performance. Shikamaru facepalmed and said, "Troublesome..." having guessed what Naruko was up to. Chōji and Kiba both stood angrily and moved towards Sasuke. Chōji was cracking his knuckles with an angry expression and Kiba grabbed the front of Sasuke's shirt and yelled in his face, "How dare you treat Naruko like that! I'm going to kick your ass for this, Sasuke!"

Ino and Sakura both had heartbroken expressions on their face as they stared at Sasuke. They were both crushing on him really hard, and had been hoping to be his first kiss. But no! It just had to be Naruko!

Hinata, however, gritted her teeth silently and clenched her fists as she glared at Sasuke. How dare he force himself on her crush!

None of their classmates seemed to notice that Naruko, who had been knocked to the floor, was unable to keep up her facade of sobbing anymore and had devolved into quiet giggling at the predicament she had put Sasuke in.

That is, until Iruka-sensei walked into the classroom. He looked around in concern, seeing all the various expressions of the students, trying to figure out what was going on. Until his eyes landed on Naruko. He sighed, guessing that she had done something to get the class in such a state.

"ENOUGH! Settle down and get in your seats, all of you!" With that, everyone quickly moved to their seats, not wanting to anger their instructor any further. After about ten minutes of questioning the class, Iruka had finally gotten a good grasp on what had happened.

"Alright Naruko, since you decided to blow this situation out of proportion for your own amusement, YOU just earned the class a pop quiz on practicing the transformation jutsu. Hurry and line up, all of you!" Shikamaru, who ended up standing next to Chōji and Naruko in line, turned to Naruko and said, slightly annoyed, "This is all your fault, you know."

"Worth it!" Naruko said back pleasantly. She didn't really mind doing the transformation jutsu, and she had found it all very funny. She didn't really take the accident all that seriously; she knew it hadn't been on purpose, so she didn't count it as her first kiss, not really. Shikamaru just sighed. "Please don't do anything else like that today, Naruko" he pleaded, doubting that she would listen. To everyone's surprise, when it was Naruko's turn, she actually followed Iruka-sensei's instructions flawlessly, without any of her usual tricks and practical jokes. She had transformed into naked versions of people quite often before, barely covering their more intimate areas with a little cloud of smoke.

As the school day was coming to a close, Iruka said, "Okay class, remember that tomorrow is your final exam and you are expected to show up by 6:00 AM, instead of 7:00 AM. It'll be written first, then taijutsu, then ninjutsu. We'll let you know individually whether you passed or not at the end of the exam. Dismissed!"

 _The next day_

Naruko had found the exam easy enough. She passed with flying colors, although that stupid Mizuki-sensei tried to fail her on grounds that she performed the Shadow Clone jutsu rather than the academy approved Clone jutsu. The academy version was just so weak and useless that Naruko had never felt a need to try and learn it. Not that it was likely that she could anyway, according to the Hokage. Apparently, putting too much chakra into the Academy's version would cause the jutsu to fail, and Naruko had a hard time holding back her chakra, even with her seal activated. She just had so much of it that it was almost impossible to portion off small amounts without tons of excess leaking out. So when she handed over the permission letter the Hokage had given her, Mizuki was forced to allow her to perform the Shadow Clone jutsu. Iruka and Mizuki had been astounded that she had effortlessly produced around 50 shadow clones, not looking the least bit tired from the exertion. It was a technique usually reserved for jōnin, and even then making so many of them was out of the reach for all but the most elite. She just scratched the back of her head and had said, "Uh, sorry about that. I accidentally made a few more than I meant to, I guess."

Iruka had cheerfully congratulated her on graduating from the academy, and handed her a hitai-ate (forehead protector), all while wondering in the back of his mind just how much chakra Naruko must have. He informed her that they were to meet at the academy at 10:00 AM tomorrow for team assignments. She waved at him happily as she ran out the door, admiring the shining proof of her status as a Konoha kunoichi.

However, Naruko now had a problem. She wasn't sure how she wanted to wear her hitai-ate. It was a bit awkward considering her fox ears. Not impossible, but she was certainly not accustomed to it and found it somewhat unpleasant. She was standing not too far outside of the academy, trying to adjust it to a position she could tolerate, when Ino emerged, holding a hitai-ate of her own.

"What are you doing, Naruko?" Ino asked curiously.

"Trying to figure out how to wear this so that it isn't completely uncomfortable," Naruko grumbled irritably.

"You know, I was planning on getting a longer piece of cloth and turning mine into a belt... Maybe that would work for you, too?" Ino suggested contemplatively. Naruko's face lit up at the suggestion. "That's genius, Ino! Yeah, I definitely want to try that. Maybe in black instead of blue.." responded Naruko. Ino nodded, thinking that she thought black suited Naruko much more than blue. "I think I'll stay with blue personally, but I do think black would look good with the rest of your outfit. Anyway, let's go. I think I have what we'll need at my house," Ino replied.

 _Later that night  
_

Naruko was walking back to her apartment from the Yamanaka residence. She had actually been invited to stay for dinner after having spent the afternoon with Ino. She glanced down at her left hip, where she had decided to wear her hitai-ate. The kitsune girl had decided that she didn't want to wear it front and center, like Ino had done with her own. Similar to her blonde friend, but different enough to show that she had her own sense of style.

Just as Naruko reached her apartment on the outskirts of Konoha, her ears picked up sound of someone running past her, towards the forest surrounding the village. Thinking that this was strange, as such a thing had not happened since she moved into this apartment, she decided to follow the mysterious passerby to sate her curiosity. The kitsune girl followed at a cautious distance until whoever it was stopped in a clearing a small distance into the forest. However, what she saw as she slowly approached confused her even more.

 _'Eh? Why does that irritating Airi girl have Hokage-jiji's scroll? That's the one he used to teach me the Kagebushin, I'm sure of it...'_ Naruko thought to herself in confusion. After a moment's hesitation, the young Uzumaki came to the decision that she would discreetly watch to see what would happen next before deciding her next move. Airi opened the scroll and started reading through it, seeming to be trying to decide on something as she did so.

At that moment, Mizuki entered the clearing with a grin on his face. "Well done Airi, now give me the scroll," the chūnin demanded, holding his hand out expectantly. A look of confusion and panic passed over Airi's face. "Wait, wait! I haven't decided which jutsu I wanted to try and learn yet! I want to pick one that I can do well for that secret exam," Airi said hurriedly. Mizuki only laughed as he said, "You really thought there was such a thing as a secret, make-up exam? There isn't, but this will be a lovely gift for Orochimaru-sama. I will, of course, have to silence you to make sure you don't spread word of my involvement." With that, he drew a kunai and stalked towards the now terrified Airi.

Naruko had seen enough. Even if she disliked Airi for how the other girl treated her, the kitsune girl wasn't going to allow this to happen. Naruko dropped down between the two, to both of their surprise, and turned towards Mizuki, her ears flat against her head and growling at him. " **Not** happening," Naruko declared firmly, falling into a combat stance.

After recovering from his surprise, Mizuki glared back at the interfering girl. "Then you die too!" he yelled angrily as he threw his kunai at Naruko's face. She raised her arm to block the kunai, and winced as she felt it bury fairly deep into her forearm, blood dripping from the wound. She wouldn't let that stop her though, as she bit her thumb quickly and drew the kanji for 3 on the front of her left shoulder. As she did this, Mizuki chuckled confidently. "Yes, yes. I've heard about your little 'seal' from Iruka. You still don't have the experience to-" he started to say, until a massive wave of red chakra surged out of Naruko, stealing the breath out of his lungs from the pressure it exerted. Mizuki quickly drew his oversized shuriken, glaring at the kitsune with the intent to not let her get any closer to him. However, he wasn't quick enough to stop Naruko's lunge straight at him.

Naruko slammed into Mizuki at full speed, driving him back roughly into one of the massive trees Konoha is well known for. The force of the impact was such that a loud crack could be heard, and the tree shuddered under the impact. She had broken quite a few bones in the traitorous chūnin's body. Mizuki coughed up blood as he slumped to the ground, eyes going dim as he lost consciousness. Naruko just stared down at the bastard, satisfied that he wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon, but not sure what she should do with the traitor.

Airi, in the meantime, was curled up on the forest floor, trembling in fear at Naruko's vicious display of strength. She squeaked in panic when the fox demon turned to look at her. But her panic turned to shock and confusion at the words that were spoken to her.

"Hey, it's okay now. I'm not going to hurt you." Naruko said as she casually sat down, looking at Airi. Her chakra was still tangible, but it seemed a little calmer, somehow. Airi just stared at Naruko in confusion, unable to voice the question that was repeating in her mind over and over: _'Why? Why did she help_ _me?'_

Naruko just looked at Airi and said, "Sorry, I know we don't get along so well, but I wasn't going to let him make you take the fall for his crimes." Airi's face softened a little at this comment, but she was still too nervous around the demon girl to speak. She was working up her courage to thank the kitsune for saving her life, when Naruko's ears suddenly perked up and her head snapped towards the direction of the village. Airi, surprised by this action, turned to look what had caught Naruko's attention.

Nothing happened for several minutes. Airi was very close to convincing herself that Naruko was playing one of her infamous pranks as some sort of revenge, when two ANBU dropped down out of the trees. A male and a female. Naruko gave the air a quick sniff, and her face lit up in excitement as she rushed at the female ANBU and hugged her. "Hey An-" she started to say before the woman ANBU quickly covered her mouth, cutting off the rest of what Naruko was going to say.

"It's Hebi when I'm on duty, Naruko. Don't say my name right now." Naruko looked up at her and nodded and Hebi dropped her hand away from Naruko's mouth. "You could tell who she was from her scent?" the male ANBU asked Naruko curiously.

Naruko turned to him, nodded, and said, "Yeah, I recognize your scent too, though I don't know you really. You always smell like trees, but not quite. Even when you're in the village." Tenzō eyes widened in surprise at the description. With keen senses like that, she would do well as a tracker in the ANBU. It would be very hard to conceal her identity though. Maybe Inu-senpai would have some ideas for that with his vast knowledge of different jutsus.

Hebi smiled behind her mask at how perceptive the girl she thought of as a younger sister was. "So, Naruko, what happened here? I see you've caught the little thief and got the scroll, but what happened to Mizuki?" Hebi asked. "Oh, he tricked her into thinking there was some make-up exam for the academy so that she would steal the scroll for him. He was going to kill her and take it to some guy called Orochimaru, so I kicked his ass," Naruko said calmly, as if it were no big deal.

However, this was quite a big deal, especially to Hebi. She tensed up at the name of her former sensei. "You're sure about that name, Naruko?" She asked in a serious tone. Naruko simply nodded in response. Hebi turned to Tenzō and asked, "Hey, can you take care of the scroll and the traitor here? I'll get these two back home then meet back up at the Hokage's office. We'll have him decide what to do with Mizuki." Tenzō nodded once in agreement, then reached down to pick up Mizuki and secure the scroll to his back as the three ladies headed back towards the village.

* * *

 **A/N: As much as I like responding to reviews, I'm less than pleased that doing so artificially inflates my word count more than these author's notes already do. So I'll not be replying individually on this particular chapter, even though I did read them all and am grateful to all of you. So instead, I'll ask a question and read your replies. Would you prefer me to either:  
A) Continue as I had been doing and just accept my word count will be inflated.  
B) Respond via Private Message on this website.  
OR  
C) Consider responding via discord; either by creating a server or just via DM. **

**I'm leaning towards B myself, but if enough people prefer one of the other options I might do that instead.**

 **Either way, I'm curious about what teams you would either like to see, or think I will write, or whatever. I've still not actually decided yet, but we'll find that out next chapter, so I better hurry up! It's an important point to decide upon because it'll definitely have an impact on the story. I already have some scenarios in mind for later on down the line, but I need to get there first. I can't promise to please everyone with my final decision on team assignments, but I'll at least listen to your opinions.**


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